One for Who
by HarrowedWriter
Summary: After meeting an early death in one world, one young man is granted a new chance at life in a different one, one he's familiar with. However, everything is not as it seems. Things are different in subtle ways, for better and for worse. Will he be able to fill the shoes left for him? Time will tell! A/T: Humor, Drama, Friendship.
1. Live, Die, Live Again!

I had to admit, I thought dying would be… Different.

Not sure exactly what I expected, maybe something to do with white fluffy clouds and a couple of golden gates. Some old guy with a giant book waiting to see if I was accepted into heaven or not.

Instead I got…

Blackness.

At least for the moment.

I should be scared, but I think the very fact that I was still able to think that meant there was probably more to this than I thought.

Maybe I wasn't really dead?

What killed me, anyways…?

I felt like I should remember this…

I still felt my body, even if the thing itself felt weightless. Like I was floating.

It was kind of nice, I imagined this is what astronauts felt like.

Now if only I could see…

My eyes were open, but it was all black. There was no light coming to my eyes.

Honestly, I wondered if this really was what death was.

God I hoped not.

Speaking of god, I wondered if I'd get to meet him… Or her, or whatever.

Was there even a god, or was it just this void?

I'd probably go insane if it was just me floating all by myself for the rest of eternity…

Oh well, I guess there was nothing left to do but float here for the moment.

Yep, float weightless in the voi-

 _CRASH_

Suddenly I felt my body regain the weight it had lost and hit a solid surface, I let out an audible grunt of pain as I went to sit up, my eyes had shut at the pain but I went to open them again rather quickly, "What the hell?"

I heard giggling coming from behind me, clearly feminine. I staggered to my feet, groaning as I felt very confused and disoriented. "Who the- You know this isn't funny, whoever you are!"

"Sure it is! At least, I think so."

I turned towards the source of the voice to reply, but it died in my throat when I saw them.

It was a woman, sitting in a chair with her legs crossed, looking rather smugly at me. Her long blonde hair cascaded down the white robes she was wearing, and her eyes were a breath-taking bright blue.

"Caught ya staring."

I suddenly realized I had indeed been staring, and blinked quickly, looking away, "Sorry. Are you-"

"God? Well, one of them at least. Sorry about the wait, I had to check on some things before I could go forward with this."

"Oh that's fine I- Wait, one of them?"

She sighed and gained an annoyed expression on her face, like she'd been asked this question a thousand times before. "Yes, one of them. There's a lot of gods. Come on, I know your world has like this huge monotheistic thing, but is it that hard to believe?"

I scratched my cheek, looking away, "Well, I guess not. Especially if you're telling me. So, I did die. How?"

"You seriously don't remember?" The goddess looked surprised, "I guess putting you in limbo really did screw with your memories. It's kind of obsolete, we don't use it unless its in a special occasion. Anyways-"

She snaps her fingers, a chair appears across from her, with a desk in front of her, so it was like we had a little interview going on in the void.

I went to sit down without prompt, wondering if this was some sort of review of my life before I got sent off to the afterlife or whatever.

"You're both right and wrong about that, by the way." The goddess says out of nowhere.

"You can read my thoughts?" I ask, only mildly surprised.

"Yep! Pretty easy for me. Anyways, let me explain how you died so we can get on to the rest of why you're here right now."

A manilla folder appears on her desk, she opens it and begins to leaf through some papers inside of it, before stopping and reading one for a second, "Here it is. Right, says here you died tackling a mall shooter, apparently they had a knife and stabbed you in the neck. Bummer! Although, you did distract them long enough for the police to close in on them."

I leaned back, blinking in dull surprise, "So… I died a hero?" My voice posed the question softly, barely above a whisper.

The blonde goddess nods, "Yeah, I think so. That's what everyone is going to see you as anyways. Anyways, you're… Alex Davidson, American, College student… You were Nineteen at the time of your death. No real infractions on your record it looks like, but aside from that bit of heroism, nothing too good either. How do you think you lived your life?"

I reached up and ran my hand through my hair, "Well. I dunno. I guess I feel I didn't even really get to live it… I don't think I was a bad person, but I didn't get to do anything I wanted to do. You know?"

"Oh I know." She responds, grinning. Her teeth were as clean and white as they could be, "And I'm so glad you feel that way! Cause I have a special offer for you. Literally once in a lifetime!"

I blinked a few times, "So… I'm not gonna go to heaven, or hell, or whatever?"

She loses her grin and frowns, "Oh come on. You don't wanna go to heaven, it's so boring! I mean, what's there to do besides sit around all day basking? And you wouldn't go to hell with a track record like yours, limbo was kinda made obsolete… No no, how would you like to be reincarnated… In another world?"

"So… Like the anime I used to watch?"

"Right! Well, not exactly. You're not going to get to go to some fantasy world, and like hell are you taking me with you! No, I have an offer to send you to one of those worlds, one I specifically picked out for you."

"And what would I be doing there, and which one?"

"Man, it's all questions and no fun with you is it? You know I'm sure a lot of people would be jumping for joy right now! This is the stuff of dreams!"

I frowned, realizing maybe I was being a bit too much of a downer. "Right, sorry… So, which one and what's the catch?"

She sighs, looking resigned about something, "Hmph, boy they sure picked out a real winner." She mutters, just loud enough for me to hear, before smiling, "Anyways! The catch isn't much. You'll find out when you get there. And as for what world? Well, you'll see that as well. I don't expect you to die a horrible death or something, we're giving you this chance to try and live out a full life! With a bit of challenge along the way as well. Think of it as a gift of sorts."

"Uhm, okay... " I responded skeptically, still not really sure how to feel about this, "I guess I'll accept?"

"Great! Oh- I should say, your old name isn't gonna fly in this world. I'll give you a new one. You'll still remember your old life, it's part of the catch. Wouldn't be fun otherwise! And uhm… What else, oh yeah! Money. Don't worry about that, I'll get you covered. Don't need you worrying about boring stuff like that! Frankly, you'll have much bigger problems on your hands with where I'm sending you!"

"Well, that's good about the money- Wait, what bigger problems?"

"Byeee! We'll be watching you!"

"Wait-" I try to talk as a bright blue beam comes down from the blackness above and begins to lift me up, "What bigger problems? I still have questions! This really seems like the worst way to start a new life! I don't even know where I'm going!"

"You worry too much! Just enjoy your new life! You'll get some information once you're there!"

I didn't have time to respond, however, as I felt as if I was being pulled apart rather painfully. Yet I couldn't scream, as everything went white and I lost all sense of where I was.

…..

...

..

 _BEEP BEEP BEEP_

My hand instinctively reached out and lightly smacked the top of the alarm as I let out a tired groan.

Why did it feel like I'd been asleep for fifteen years?

I went to climb out of bed and ended up sliding off the bed and onto the wooden floor below, thankfully the covers cushioned my fall.

Well, that and the fall wasn't really far. A foot at most.

"Ugh…" I reached up and grabbed at what seemed to be a night stand, using it to anchor myself to a standing position.

Pulling myself up all the way, I finally manage to stand unassisted and rub my eyes, looking around the room.

Was it just me or was everything larger than it used to be?

Or did I get smaller?

I rubbed my head and groaned, before noticing that my hair was… A bit longer than I remembered it being. It wasn't going down my back or anything, but it was shaggy and, as I pulled down a piece of it over my eye… That hair color could not be natural.

It was blue! Not a dark blue or anything, it was a kind of dusty light blue. Then again… I guess given the circumstances of me being… Wherever I am, it wasn't that hard to imagine that this might be my natural hair color now.

I probably looked completely different than how I used to look. Which I honestly didn't know how to feel about. It's not like I was extremely attached to my looks or something, but… Would I really feel like myself, at least at first?

I guess I'd figure that out with time.

In the meantime, I looked around the room to try and get a lay of the land, to see just where I'd woken up.

The room seemed kind of sparse, actually. There were no decorations and the walls were painted white, there was a television set hung up on the wall, a desk with a computer on it, and a window with two blue curtains covering it.

The bed was plain as well, being about Queen size, so it wasn't lacking in space, covered with a dark blue comforter, white sheets, and similarly colored pillows. The sheets were half off the bed right now due to my mishap, but beyond that it looked relatively normal.

I'd have to do something about how plain this room is, I knew that already… Maybe it was left this way so I could outfit it?

The door leading out to my room had a letter pinned to it, so I walked over and took it off the thumbtack, reading it.

"Akio Okumura,

Like the new name? I just kind of picked one at random, well, I hope you like it at least, cause you're stuck with it!

Anyways, you've been landed in the world of that anime series, _My Hero Academia._ The council of gods figured it'd be a good enough place for you! And sufficiently enough of a challenge.

Now, you might be wondering what kind of Quirk you have, well. You've got something called _Foresight._ You can see into someone's future if you look them in the eyes and touch their head in some way while focusing.

Now, you might be saying that that's reaaaalll familiar, well don't worry! It is, and it's that way for a reason.

You might also be wondering why we didn't give you a really cool Quirk, like super strength or exploding hands or Spider powers, well there's a reason for that! I can't tell you specifically, but I can let you know that you won't have to worry about a boring quirk for very long!

Also before I explain some boring stuff, you'll notice things are a bit… Different than you remember. Not too much, but we couldn't have you just knowing everything that was gonna happen, so keep on your toes! That's half the fun of it.

Anyways, boring stuff. We've given you more than enough money than you'll ever possibly run out of, and given you this apartment to yourself. We figured giving you parents would be a bit much considering you just got separated from your old ones.

You'll have all the info you need to access your funds and the like on the back of this paper, so don't lose it until you remember everything! Then burn it, probably.

Anyways, you're not in my jurisdiction anymore, you're in some other god's territory, so this'll be the last time you hear from me more than likely.

Live a good life, Akio, and remember… Plus Ultra!"

The letter was a lot to take in.

So… I was living in a world based off one of my favorite shows. Not only that, but I had a Quirk, as small as it may be, and as… Familiar as it may be.

No parents, no need to worry about money… Just figuring out where I lived and how to get into UA.

Should be paradise, but I was honestly a bit skeptical of what she said.

Keep on my toes? That sounded more worrying than I wanted it to.

Not to mention that, while it is all well and good to _watch_ something about heroes in training fighting villains and getting stronger, it sure as hell probably isn't going to be as much fun _being_ a hero in training fighting villains and getting stronger.

Especially with the quirk that Ms. Goddess was telling me not to worry about being weak.

Yeah, I was _sure_ to get into UA with a Quirk like this.

The General Studies course, maybe. Not that I wanted that in the slightest.

I'd find out sooner or later… For now, I turned the letter around and committed the information it gave me to memory as best I could, before folding it up and leaving it on my desk.

The computer I owned honestly looked really high end, more than anything I owned in my old life to be certain. I was sure I could play some games on this thing… Once I figured out what games existed.

Hell, with the amount of money Ms. Goddess said I had, I could probably live at home for the rest of my days, playing games and living like a shut-in.

Of course, I wasn't going to, as tempting as it was. This was a world of heroes and villains! Powers and Prestige! There was too much to see for me to waste my life in this place just because I could.

I could have been dropped in on the middle of the street for all I know about those 'gods' that dealt with me. At least they had the kindness to set me up so I didn't need to worry about minor things while going about my life. Like figuring out how to explain who I was.

I'd been given some sort of 'backstory' by Ms. Goddess to help me integrate into this world a bit easier, so I at least knew what I had to do with my life for the time being.

I am Akio Okumura, only son of a very rich hero duo that tragically met their end in a freak accident when trying to evacuate civilians from a burning building. A gas-line exploded and took both of them with it, leaving me with their money even if I wasn't of age yet. I go to Aldera Junior High, the same school as Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugo, and am close to graduating.

They don't know me, at least not well, but I live relatively close to Midoriya, which was cool I supposed. It'd be interesting seeing him develop in real time…

I opted to check the date and time, to see if I had to worry about going to school.

6:00 AM on a Friday.

Of course I had to worry about repeating middle and high school all over again right away.

At least the prospective high school I hoped I'd end up at had an exciting hero course.

For now, though, it was time for middle school.

I checked my closet and found I had a uniform, so I took it and went to locate my shower.

Exiting my room, I found that my apartment was thankfully not horribly cramped.

It had a living room that went into a kitchen, with plenty of space to walk about, good if I ever had to entertain guests, and of course the bathroom wasn't hard to find, given that this apartment only had one bedroom and one bathroom, no extra rooms to be found.

Once I was in the bathroom, it was just a matter of getting out of the clothes I'd been put in when I arrived, showering myself, then getting out and drying before putting on the uniform.

I had to admit… It was strange. The black uniform was a far cry from the freedom of not wearing uniforms I'd had in middle and high school the first time around - Uniforms in general just weren't a thing for me growing up. So it felt a bit… Restrictive.

Guess it was just one of the many things I'd have to get used to now.

Once I was dressed, I headed out to my room again, grabbing the note and slipping it into my pocket, before poking around the room. I located my wallet and my phone, as well as my house keys. All things I'd need to carry with me.

I thought about making breakfast… I still remembered how, thank god. I could only imagine being dropped into a situation like this with little to no memory of anything that happened before hand.

That would be awful, I think. I'd pity anyone in that kind of situation.

Either way, I decided against breakfast. I figured I'd eat at school, no matter what the food tasted like. Besides, breakfast wasn't all that important of a meal in my experience.

With my mind made up, I headed for the door after slinging my backpack onto… Well, my back, either way I opened the door and stepped out into the open. I was a few floors up the stairwell, I could see clear out into the open, and one of the people I saw leaving was Izuku Midoriya.

I didn't know how to get to school, but based on the fact he was wearing the uniform as well, I figured I'd just… Walk with him, I wasn't sure how I'd go about _talking_ to him, but… Well, you had to go with the flow when it came to this kind of thing.

I descended the steps and quickened my steps, Izuku looked like his head was in the clouds, or more specifically, his notebook. Likely that hero notebook of his. "Hey, Izuku!" I call out, "Wait up!"

Izuku perked up at hearing his name, turning to look at me and blinking, "Oh, hey Akio! What's up?"

I almost told him my name wasn't Akio out of reflex, but I stopped myself, instead I waved my hand, "Oh, nothing. Just figured you could… You know, use some company walking to school today."

Izuku looked surprised, but smiled a bright smile, "Oh, yeah, sure! I usually walk by myself, so it'll be nice to have someone with me for a change."

I guess Izuku still wasn't all that popular in school, that remained the same it seemed. Then again maybe he just didn't live close enough to anyone else. "Sounds good, let's get to it then, yeah?"

We started walking next to each other, although I was careful to watch where Izuku walked, so in a way I was subtly following him. "So, Izuku, last year of Middle School, eh? Got any plans after that? I know a lot of people are wanting to get into UA, myself included."

The green haired boy sighs, "Yeah, I hope I can make it. I mean, there are so many more impressive quirks than mine! I just hope whatever tests they throw at us can be solved by brain power and breathing fire."

To make his point clear, Izuku sighs out a small stream of fire, solidifying my shock.

It was hard for me to keep my surprise from being visible. So _that_ was something that was different.

That was a _major_ difference. Izuku had a quirk? That changed everything!

I think at least… I'd need to see how things would end up.

For now, I cleared my throat, "U-uh, well, you know. At least your quirk has combat application, what am I gonna do to an enemy? See their life story and future at them?"

Izuku scratched his cheek and laughed nervously, in a way that told me he was just remembering my quirk wasn't exactly aggressive, "W-Well, you can still hit things, and if that fails, maybe you could become some kind of interrogator or something? I know how much you want to be a Hero… Hey, maybe my notes will help you some!"

Deku tree proceeded to hold out his hero notebook, grinning, "I bet this will help you get an idea of how you can apply your quirk! I take notes on everyone!"

A look of surprise reached my face, "I-Izuku, are you sure? Isn't this like, precious to you or something?"

"Well, yeah! You can look it over while we're at school, and maybe we can talk about it when school's over?" He seemed eager at the prospective of getting to share his fascination with other heroes with someone, it was honestly kind of adorable.

Smiling, I took the outstretched notebook, "Thanks man. I'll read this in my downtime at school and we'll talk about it after class, on the way back home."

Izuku grinned and gave me a thumbs up, "Hey, no problem! Anything to help another prospective hero, you know?"

I kept my smile and held onto the journal, changing the subject, "Anyways, how're things? Everything going alright?"

He nods, "Yep! Nothing out of the ordinary with me, just working on getting more control over my quirk. I'm sure there's going to be people at the entrance exam for UA who've had professional help with their quirk, I don't really want that, so I'm trying my best with what I have."

Returning his nod, I offer him some encouragement, "Well hey, you've got fire breath. I'm sure once you've got that completely under control you can become a real strong hero, maybe someday I'll be seeing Izuku Midoriya merchandise, instead of All Might, eh?"

Izuku laughs, shaking his head, "I don't think I'll ever be as cool as All Might! All I have is fire breath. He's got super… Everything!"

"Just keep your chin up, I'm sure you'll get there some day."

After all, All Might would likely still give him One for All in this world - It was still the same Izuku, the same Deku. He deserved to be the number one hero more than anyone, in my opinion.

I just hoped I'd get to watch some of the action, maybe even participate a little bit.

….

…

The rest of the walk to school was filled with small talk between Izuku and I, mostly Izuku talking about All Might's latest save, and how he was apparently coming to town to work at UA. It had him over the moon - Hell, his enthusiasm made me a little excited as well. More so than I already was at the prospect of actually _meeting All Might._

Something that seemed noteworthy to me was that we didn't encounter the same roadblock as before - There was no monster in the way, and Mount Lady didn't jump out of nowhere to steal the thunder.

I had to wonder about that, I hoped she still existed. I had to admit, a part of me wanted to see what she looked like up close…

Oh well, I guess there'd be time enough for that later.

Soon we arrived at school and got about starting class.

There was some subdued culture shock to all of this - It was thankfully very much still the kind of school I'd expect from watching the anime that I did, but there were slightly more subtle things that weirded me out a bit.

For example, something I never really knew was that the _teachers_ were the ones who moved between classes in Japan, not the students.

That took a bit of adjusting to, but I found it easier as the day went by.

I sat closer to the back, just trying to avoid any real attention. Many of my classmates were… Weird. It was almost unnerving seeing all these quirks that change the body personally as opposed to viewing it on a show.

I guess I'd just get used to it, after all if I acted weirded out by all of this, I'd probably draw attention to myself, and I just wanted to observe to see what else was different.

Katsuki seemed the same, and his relationship to Izuku seemed the same as well, although Izuku was just a tiny bit bolder in defending himself when Katsuki started berating him. Not by much, though, I guess that had to do with Katsuki still having a vastly superior quirk to him.

The class seemed to pass normally - The only thing that seemed different was that it lacked Deku getting made fun of by the entire class for wanting to go to UA without a quirk.

Instead, something different happened.

After Katsuki finished his spiel about not being clumped up with the rest of the 'losers' the teacher piped up, "Say, Akio, you want to go to UA as well, don't you?"

Well, at least the class doesn't laugh at me like they did Deku in the show, but it did draw the attention of Katsuki, unfortunately.

"You? Get into UA?" Katsuki's voice was as gruff and angry as always, "As if! Maybe if you're expecting general studies, but your quirk can't even damage anyone. What are you gonna do if a villain comes at you? Bleed at them?"

That elicited some snickers from the class and an apologetic look from Izuku, like he was apologizing for Katsuki being an asshole.

"I'll find my way, and it won't involve bleeding at them." I respond, and before Bakugo could retort, the teacher got everyone's attention.

"Alright, alright. There'll be plenty of time to talk after class, for now, let's get back to our lesson."

Saved by the teacher, I suppose.

As the lessons for the day continued, I spent the time thinking about what Katsuki said.

I suppose I should have expected something like that from someone like him, given how my quirk wasn't useful in combat at all. Today had been one giant mindfuck already, and I honestly didn't know how much else was going to change.

I wasn't going to let him get me down though - Katsuki is an inherently flawed person and I know he'll eventually see the error of his ways. Even if it will take a long… Long time. It's not entirely his fault that the world seemed bent on kissing his ass from the day he was born.

That being said, I wasn't going to let him kick me around, I wasn't scared of some bully. I wasn't scared of them in my old life and I wasn't going to start being scared of one now just because he could blow me up.

He wouldn't do that, after all, he needed a clean slate to get into UA.

I had to admit it was a little unfair in two different ways - Me being in middle school again. On one hand, all the lessons that were rather static were easy for me, Math and English, I somehow miraculously knew Japanese, which was good. However, history and courses like that were wildly against me, because I knew next to nothing about the specifics of this world's history.

Guess I'd need to study. Great.

I was busy lamenting this fact as class ended and people started leaving when Izuku came up to me, a smile on his face.

"So, how do you like my notes? Get anything useful from them?"

I looked at the notebook, I was about half-way through it, given the extensiveness of the notes, "Not really, at least not yet, but it'll probably take more than one day to figure out where I fit into the world, you know?"

There were a couple layers to that statement, I realized. I didn't know where I fit in both literally and metaphorically, given my situation. I couldn't imagine I'd be anything big.

"Well I'll help you! You kn-"

"Deku! You shouldn't be encouraging him." Katsuki's unpleasant voice caught both Izuku's attention and my own, we looked to him, I was still sitting down, while Izuku turned his head.

Katsuki continued, his two lackies standing behind him looking smug as ever, "His quirk has nothing to do with combat, he'll be a support hero at best, although he'll probably end up being some Police Detective instead of a hero. You shouldn't be deluding him, you're just going to help him get killed."

To Izuku's credit, he tried to refute Bakugo's claim, "Kacchan, just because his quirk isn't super strong doesn't mean he can't be a hero! There are plenty of heroes with quirks that aren't as strong as something like yours!" He was keeping his tone friendly, but making sure to defend me, likely trying not to set Bakugo off.

I had to hand it to Izuku, he knew some kind of subtlety.

Unfortunately, Katsuki did not.

"Yeah, and all those heroes are either dead, or will be soon! Not to mention how much they slow down the _real_ pros! Akio, if you become a hero all you'll do is get in my way, so find a different track! And Deku!" He continues his tirade, focusing instead on the green haired wonder, "Don't go giving people like him stupid ideas! If you do I'll-"

"You'll what?" I intervene, finally getting tired of just sort of taking his abuse. I didn't want to alter things too much, but I couldn't just sit by and let this happen.

I stand up, taking the journal and pushing it further away from us, "Show me my place?" I wonder, "Set me on fire or blow me up? Please, Bakugo."

If it was possible for a man to look like he was going to have steam coming out of his ears, Bakugo would be dealing with that, "What? You think I can't?! I could-"

"Oh, you could, but you won't. You want that assault charge on your permanent record? Try getting into UA with that! And it'd be the word of a trusted student versus the word of a hot-head with an explosion quirk. Come on, you're not stupid."

Katsuki knew I was right and that only seemed to piss him off more, "Whatever!" He grunts and turns around, "Just watch your back, and don't get in my way!" Then, he stalks off, accompanied by his two confused lackies.

Izuku turned and frowned, "Akio…" His voice was soft and chiding, "You shouldn't antagonize him, even if he's hard to deal with. It just makes things worse in the long run, you know that right?"

I wanted to keep my frown and defend my actions, but I was forced to sigh and admit my wrong, "Yeah, I know. Just couldn't deal with him railing on me like that. Got on my nerves is all."

He smiles, seeming to be able to tell that I was genuine, "No problem. How about we get going? School's done and they won't want students hanging around after class like this."

I reach back and grab the notebook, holding it up to show that it was undamaged, "Yeah, let's go. We've got plenty to talk about."

….

..

"So this 'Chillax' guy literally causes people's muscles to relax so much they fall over huh?"

"Yeah! Isn't it cool? He's a pretty midline hero but he also runs a massage parlor which makes him loads of money!"

I nod a few times, turns out Deku's notebook held a lot more than just the big name heroes. There were a lot of average and even slightly sub-par heroes in there, but Deku seemed to approach them all the same, with enthusiasm and analysis.

"I guess he'll never want for work, even if he gets to the point where he can't do hero work later in his life. Good for him."

We'd been walking and discussing for awhile now, I'd honestly gotten pretty drawn into all this Hero talk. Although admittedly that might have been because when I was younger I was _really_ into Superheroes, so living in a world where they actually exist is something of a dream come true.

Even if I was sort of on the bottom rung in terms of flashy powers.

Well, not sort of, I am at the bottom of the rung in that regard.

I looked up from the notebook and went to make another statement, but then I noticed where we were.

On that path underneath the bridge, with the manhole, still a bit of a walk away from home.

As I glanced down at the manhole, I noticed it rattling.

I knew what was about to happen, and acted on instinct, even if I knew I shouldn't have, "Izuku, look out!"

I shoved him out of the way right as the sludge monster rose up out of the sewers and lunged at me, its muck-like body being too much of a match for mine. The green abomination quickly covered my nose and mouth with its sludge while I instinctively fought against it, my body feeling like it was weighed down by a thousand pounds of sand just try to wade around in its viscous body.

I knew Izuku nearly died when this thing attacked him the first time, but this was more than I expected! I could barely focus on what the creature was saying.

"You'll make a nice skin-suit for me kid! I didn't know _he_ would be in town, so I gotta get out quick. Thanks for this! You're a real hero!"

I just had to wait for All Might to come, and struggle as much as I could.

Of course, something different happened before that.

"Hey, sewer face!" Izuku yelled defiantly, having picked himself off the ground from when I shoved him and now held a look of anger as he stood a few feet away from me, "Leave my friend alone!"

Deku took a deep breath, before blowing out a stream of fire easily the size of what I'd expect to come out of a flame thrower. He was clearly not aiming for me, rather aiming above me at the sludge monster.

Said monster proceeded to laugh as the fire simply caused its skin to bubble a bit, "Nice try kid, but I'm a bit too put together for your quirk to get to me!" Then, he extended out one of his tentacles and smacked Deku, sending him flying back and rolling on the ground.

Shit, shit! This wasn't good! I kept struggling, I just had to wait! I just had to survive!

My vision was starting to blur, I could barely keep together…

I finally heard his booming voice, just as I was starting to fade out.

"Worry not young man! It will be okay… Because I AM HERE!"

I couldn't see the ensuing fight, as I was still losing consciousness, but I did feel the powerful blast of wind caused by the Texas Smash that ripped apart the sludge villain.

My last sight was of All Might before I ended up losing consciousness from the lack of oxygen.

….

…

..

I woke up to All Might lightly slapping me in the face, and when I came to, I blinked rapidly and looked around, "Whu- Oh!"

My vision adjusted and I saw All Might standing with a grin on his face, Izuku looking positively starstruck as he knelt next to me while looking at All Might.

Even though I was laying on my back, I was still awe struck by the sheer size of All Might - muscle bound and taller than any man I'd ever seen before. "A-All Might!" I managed out, sitting up as he beamed down at me.

The Symbol of Peace raised his hand in greeting, "Thought we lost you there! Thank you boys for your support! I didn't mean to get you caught up in my justicing! Usually I do more to keep bystanders safe, but it turns out this city's sewer system is pretty hard to navigate!" Then he let out his signature boisterous laugh.

As All Might was laughing, Izuku shoved the notebook in my face, it was opened and had a massive 'ALL MIGHT' signature on it, "Look Akio! He signed my notebook! All Might's the coolest! He's so amazing!" The green haired wonder sounded as starstruck as he looked, honestly.

Not that I could blame him, being in the presence of All Might was making _me_ kind of giddy, even if I didn't want to show it.

Before I could respond to Deku, All Might continued to speak, "Anyways! Thanks to you boys, I've captured the evil doer!" He proudly brandishes the two soda bottles holding the sludge villain captive.

He slips them into his pockets, declaring, "I need to get this villain to the police so they can put him in proper custody" He turned away and began to stretch, "Stay safe, and see you around!"

"W-Wait, you're leaving already?" Izuku's voice was bleeding with disappointment and sadness.

"Pro Heroes are constantly fighting time as well as enemies!"

I could tell Deku wanted to ask him more questions - I expected this much.

What I didn't expect was, as Deku went to grab hold of him, he tripped over his laces and fell over with a soft 'oof!'

THAT wasn't supposed to happen! I couldn't let All Might get away from Izuku! He HAD to listen to him, things had to go a certain way!

I scrambled forward, still crawling, and grabbed All Might's leg as he declared, "Stand back! I'm taking off!"

I went to hold my hand out to Izuku, who got the message and went to grab on, but before his hand could interlock with mine, All Might took off several hundred feet in the air, with me clinging onto his pants leg.

"THANKS FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT!" His voice boomed, and my view of Deku got smaller and smaller as the look of shock and horror on his face got harder to make out from the rest of him.

Oh god! The wind pressure was making my face catch with the wind, "A-All Might!" I could only manage that, the wind was keeping me from speaking.

All Might noticed me holding onto his leg for dear life and started to rather abruptly try to get me to let go, "Hey, let go! I've got a lot of hero work to do, you know!"

"I can't All Might, you're flying! If I let go I'll die!"

"Oh, right! Then just hold on and keep your mouth and eyes closed for the wind!"

I did as instructed and kept my eyes and mouth shut as All Might went searching for a place to drop us off - Although I already knew where we'd be landing by the time he found the right place.

He eventually found a spot and landed, and I promptly let go of his leg and did my best to keep the contents of my stomach in check, "Ugh… Sorry All Might!"

"It's alright young man! Now, just knock on the door real loud and someone will surely let you down." All Might was already heading for the edge to jump off.

I couldn't let him leave! I might be in Deku's place right now, but things had to happen a certain way… They just had to!

I couldn't use the same topic to stall All Might Izuku did, I had to think fast…

I'd have to try this instead!

"W-Wait! All Might! I have to ask… My quirk doesn't have any defensive or offensive capabilities! C-Can I still become a hero? Can I become… Like you?"

The words I spoke just poured from my mouth - I got the idea from how I was treated today, I couldn't begin to explain why my voice got slightly choked up from saying them though…

It worked though, All Might froze in place and turned his head ever so slightly to look at me.

I had to keep talking, I had to run the meter… I just had to!

"My class doesn't believe I have what it takes to be a pro hero… Because my quirk… I-It's seeing into someone's past and their probable future. I know I should be something different but… I want to be a pro! A real hero!"

It seemed to work, All Might continued looking back at me, before suddenly beginning to struggle with his time running out. Steam began to pour off his body, and I watched in mock surprise as his body changed, covered in smoke as it was.

"A-All Might?" I do my best to fake a horrified reaction, "What's happened to you?!"

The skeletal Toshinori looked at me, there were several emotions on his face. Aside from the obvious look of discomfort at having his secret revealed to a near-stranger, there was… Something else. I couldn't tell what. "You know how those guys at the pool are always sucking in their gut and flexing? I'm like that."

"I can't believe it…" I keep acting, "How did this happen?"

Toshinori lifts up his shirt and shows his wound - It was even more grotesque in person, like he had a crater on the side of his stomach, "Got this nasty wound in a fight about five years ago. Lost my whole stomach. The surgeries have really worn me down. Nowadays I can only do hero work for about three hours a day, the rest of the time… This is what I look like."

"I-I see.. So…"

"So, about what you said." He continues, sitting on the ground, "A quirk like yours would be an amazing boone to a police force or investigative agency, but not for pro hero work. If what you say is true and your quirk lacks any offensive or defensive power, there'll be villains you just can't beat. So… In that regard, no. I don't think you can be a hero."

I expected these words, in some way. I really did. So why did hearing them hurt so much? I was lucky to be in this world at all… Yet here I was being upset at not getting to be a hero.

Reading the comic books, watching the movies, playing the games… My old life was filled with Super Heroes. When I came here after death… A part of me seriously hoped to be a pro hero. Instead, this is what I got? Some cruel joke played on me by some god?

I held back tears as I realized just how much I was wanting this… How much I wanted to be like All Might, in reality.

Toshinori stood up, "There are many other professions you'd be great at. Like I said, police interrogator, detective, that kind of thing, but pro hero work isn't one of them." It looked like Toshinori himself had some more to say, but he was holding back, "I...I'm sorry kid. I'll see you around."

Why did it sound like he wasn't really talking to me for a second? What made him stammer?

Wordlessly, Toshinori left the rooftop, heading to the stairwell.

I was left mulling over his words, standing in place for a few moments before the explosion I had previously been expecting went off in the distance.

It snapped me out of my thinking and back to reality, all was not lost! All Might just needed to see Izuku charge forward to save Bakugo, then he'd decide to give the green boy One for All and everything would be okay!

Then I could go back to thinking about where I fit in to this crazy world.

I pushed my strange feelings to the back of my mind and hurried down the steps - It seemed All Might was already making a run for it as well, as I didn't see him on my way down.

I did my best not to run like I was in a hurry, I sped-walked, since I knew this would still be going on by the time I got there, or hell, if I was lucky maybe Deku will have already inspired All Might to save the day?

…

I eventually got to where the sludge monster had captured Bakugo, the heroes that were on sight were trying their best to do damage control. Toshinori was in the back, although I didn't see Deku anywhere.

Where…?

"G-Get off of us you crazy sludge thing!"

"DIE YOU SLUDGE CREEP!"

Oh no.

As I got to the front of the crowd of onlookers, I saw something I never thought I'd see.

The sludge monster had both Izuku AND Katsuki in its grasp! How the hell did that happen?

"I DON'T NORMALLY TAKE TWO HOSTAGES!" The sludge monster shouts to everyone, "BUT I THINK MAYBE I'LL JUST KILL THIS GREEN ONE AND TAKE THE BLONDE ONE'S QUIRK FOR MYSELF!"

Oh no, no no no no…

"What happened?!" I asked one of the other bystanders.

"This blonde kid got ambushed by that green villain!" A random civilian responded, "The kid with the green hair and fire breath tried to jump in to save him, but he just got stuck in the sludge! They've been like this for awhile now, the heroes can't get close enough to save them!"

What was I going to do?

All Might couldn't be inspired by some kid who'd already gotten himself captured… It was seeing that selflessness that inspired him to save the day!

I could see him struggling with himself in the back, he clearly was still going through his own emotional turmoil.

' _Come on Akio, think damn it!'_

I gritted my teeth, I'd only been in one situation like this that I could remember, and I _died_ as a result of it.

Damn it, damn it!

I couldn't let them die! They had so much to do! So many lives to save!

What was one life for two who would save thousands?

I knew what I had to do!

Steeling my resolve, I charged forward out of the crowd and into the flaming market street, doing my best to avoid the flames as the sludge monster noticed me running towards it.

' _Come on, come on!'_

"YOU AGAIN? I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOU!"

What did Deku do to distract this guy?

Oh, right!

I grabbed my backpack, slightly opened as it was, and flung it at the villain. School supplies went everywhere, I saw some of them hitting the villain in the eye and causing him to recoil.

I closed the distance and started clawing at the creature's sludge, swearing repeatedly under my breath.

"Akio! What are you doing here? You'll get hurt!" Izuku sounded alarmed and worried - Despite the fact he was the one in danger of dying right now.

"You… Idiot!" Was all Katsuki could manage, dealing with the Sludge Villain's imminent take over as he was.

"I'm not letting you two die!" I respond, shouting above the shouts of the heroes and bystanders as they witnessed me run in, "You both! You're going to be heroes! Great heroes! You'll save so many people! You CAN'T DIE!" I continued clawing uselessly at the sludge, letting out a defiant yell, "I WON'T LET YOU!"

"A-Akio!" Izuku sounded touched by my words, but I wasn't focusing on that, I kept clawing to try and drag them out.

"ENOUGH, YOU'RE TOO ANNOYING TO LET LIVE!" The sludge villain reeled back his tendril and went to bring it down on me.

' _Come on, All Might!'_

Thank god, All Might jumped in faster than the eye could detect, blocking the tendril and sending up dust.

As my vision cleared, I saw the giant of a man standing in front of me, blocking the green menace with his arms. "I really am pathetic! Telling you to find another profession, then standing back and letting this villain cause trouble!"

"A-All Might!" I hear Izuku call, muffled as he was from the sludge villain.

Almost effortlessly, All Might grabbed both Katsuki and Deku with one hand wrapped around their wrists. He reeled back his other fist, glistening with sweat as it was, and I could see while looking at his fearless undying smile that there was a small amount of blood coming off.

"DETROOOIIIITTT… SMAASSSHHHH!"

I took the initiative in grabbing on to All Might's arm when he yanked back the other two while simultaneously punching the villain. The sheer force of his punch caused a wind tunnel that the civilians had to take shelter from, I held on as best I could to avoid being thrown back from the force of the wind.

The sludge villain was not so lucky, screaming in anger and pain, he found himself getting torn into pieces and losing shape as the force of the wind caused the clouds above to swirl and send pieces of the villain everywhere on the street.

As the wind died down and rain began to fall, the Civilians and Heroes murmured to each other in shock and awe at the display as the three of us students managed to regain our footing.

The cheering came shortly after as the rain ceased, All Might being hailed as a hero once again as the three of us were hurried to be checked by the EMTs.

….

Well, one of the kind heroes managed to get me my backpack and the stuff in it back while I was being checked over - I was pretty quickly cleared as being healthy, and spent the next few minutes getting berated by a hero for running in and putting myself in danger while Izuku and Katsuki were praised for valiantly surviving the villain's oppressive sludge long enough for help to arrive.

Well, I guess I couldn't complain, as much as I _wanted_ to, as I always thought this was unfair when it happened to Deku - it happening to me was just worse, but I'd just make the lecture longer.

Thankfully, I was let go relatively quickly after the talking to was finished, while Deku and Izuku were still getting praised and checked by the EMTs for any hidden damage.

I just waved to the two of them before heading off to get home - After the fiasco that was today, more than anything, I wanted to shower, sit down, and play video games until I had to sleep.

As I was walking down the road, I sighed and began to mull over what I'd do with my life now. Maybe I'd just apply to UA's general studies course, or go to some police academy… I could at least be helpful in some way there, right?

The sun was starting to set a bit - I'd been gone from home a lot longer than I thought, honestly.

As I walked down the street, I heard Izuku call from behind me, "Hey, Akio! Wait up!"

I stopped, looking back, Deku was smiling a bright smile and waving at me. I waved back, "Hey Izuku, doing okay?"

"Yeah, thanks to you!" He keeps his grin as he stops in front of me, "You saved us back there! Kacchan didn't want to admit it, but you kept that villain from smothering us alive before All Might got there!"

I just smiled lightly, "Ah I was just being stupid. I couldn't stand losing you, or Bakugo, he might be a jerk, but I know he just wants to be a hero, like you."

Izuku nods, "You get it now, he's the same as me!" He rubs the back of his head sheepishly, before adding, "Say, Akio…"

I raised an eyebrow as his tone changed from one of jovial glee to curiosity, "Yeah, Izuku?"

"Back there, you said Kacchan and I… We'd be heroes. Did you see into our futures?"

I chuckle softly, "No, you'd of known if I did that, I can only do it if through a specific process."

"Oh, then why'd you say that?"

I shrug, "Isn't it obvious? I believe in you two. I might not ever be some pro hero, saving lives and making a big name for myself. But you two? You'll be the real heroes."

Izuku shakes his head, "Don't be so down on yourself." He reaches out and pats my arm, "You were so cool back there! I bet with some training you can still be a pro hero!"

I smile softly, "Maybe, Izu. Maybe."

Izuku looked at the clock on his phone, "Oh! I gotta get going. My mom saw the news and wants me home - I don't want to worry her more than I usually do. You should come over sometime! I bet she'd want to meet you, considering you helped save me."

I nod a few times, "How about tomorrow? I'm kind of beat today, just kind of want to sleep."

Izuku nods enthusiastically, "Sure! And - You can keep my notebook for today, just don't lose it, alright?" He was clearly joking, not believing that I'd actually lose it.

"Sure thing!"

"Alright, bye!" He waves at me, before sprinting off down the road that was enclosed by suburban fencing.

It worried me - I didn't see All Might racing out to stop him and talk to him. Did I fail?

Maybe he'd get it at a different time… Or maybe he didn't need it in this world?

If he never got it, I hoped that was the case.

I sighed as I started to walk towards home, wondering if I could track down some kind of delivery service for tonight, I didn't really feel like cooking…

Before I could think about if pizza joints still existed in this world, out of the alleyway came All Might, skidding to a stop in front of me and scaring the daylights out of me.

"I AM HERE!"

"A-All Might?! Why are you here?"

He let out of his boisterous laugh, "I am here to discuss things with you, I gave a slip to those reporters!" He began to flex, "Because I stand for justice not sound bites! Because I… I am ALL MI-" Then, in a puff of smoke, he spewed out blood from his mouth, turning into Toshinori at the same time.

My eyes were wide in genuine surprise - Not from the transformation, but from him being in front of me to begin with.

"Young man, I came to thank you, and to discuss your question from earlier." He started speaking, looking at me in his deflated, skeletal form, "Hearing your desire to be a pro hero despite your quirk, and seeing you rush in to save your friends… It inspired me to act, if you hadn't done those things, I'd have just been a worthless bystander in the crowd. So thank you."

I waved my hand in front of my face, "It's… You don't have to thank me, it was my fault that happened anyways. Grabbing onto your leg to ask you questions… I got in your way." These words I heard All Might speak… They reminded me of something, but… What was it?

Wait a minute…

"There are stories about every hero. How they became great, most have one thing in common. Their bodies moved before they had a chance to think. Almost on their own…"

My eyes widened more as I realized what was happening. No… This was when Izuku was supposed to be chosen! Yet… He was talking to me?!

I felt my lip quivering involuntarily, was I about to cry? Is this what that goddess had in store for me the whole time?

Involuntarily, memories of my old life flashed through my head. As I stood stock still, staring at All Might, tears began to stream down my face. I remembered all the fun I had, all the childish dreams… How I tried to be a hero, and how I died. Everything…

"And today, that's what happened to you."

Those dreams that filled my head even up to the last minute of my old life sparked again in my head as I closed my eyes and looked down, wiping my eyes on my sleeve as more tears began to fall.

I should be worried about All Might giving this to me right now, but I couldn't do anything but cry…

"Young man… You, to, can become a hero."

The tears continued streaming as I fought to rain in my emotion, repeatedly telling myself in my head to stop crying, stop crying in front of the symbol of peace!

"I deem you worthy! My power is yours to inherit!" I opened my eyes to see him making a grand gesture with his arms, well, as grand as he could in his skeletal form.

As I looked at him, still shocked from all of this, he burst out laughing. "You should see the look on your face! Don't worry so much kid. This is your choice!" He walks a bit closer to me and points, "Do you want to accept my awesome power or not?!"

I stared at him, "Wha- I-"

"Well, before you make your choice, there are two things you should know about my quirk. Journalists always assume my quirk is super strength, or some kind of invulnerability. When I'm asked the question in interviews, I make a joke and dodge the question. The world needs to believe their symbol of peace is a natural born hero, like any other, but in truth there's nothing natural about my abilities."

I nod along dumbly, almost wanting to tell him I already knew - But no, I had to blend in.

"My power…" He extends his hand, which begins to glow with the power of One for All, "Is one that is improved by one person, then passed down to another, each person improving it in their own way before passing it down. It was given to me, and I'm offering to give it to you. The name of this power… Is One for All."

I swallowed a lump in my throat, I had to ask, one more attempt, for Izuku! "W-Why me? Why not my friend Izuku? He tried to save Bakugo first… He's brave and would be a much better choice than me!"

Toshinori laughs again, "I chose you for a reason, young man. Several reasons, actually. You have a quirk, but it's not a quirk that would land you in a pro hero spot. You have the resolve to charge in, regardless of that, to save your friends. You have the makings of a great hero, trust me. I think young Midoriya will get by with his quirk just fine."

So much for that, although I finally decided to ask the question that had been on my mind, "...D-Does this have anything to do with my quirk? Is it because your former sidekick has a similar quirk?"

Toshinori's face darkened, he looked away, "...I won't lie to you kid. Your quirk… It reminds me a lot of him, Sir Nighteye. You remember… He died on a mission one day, an explosion took him out before I had the chance to save him. I made a vow after that… I'd make it up to him, however I could."

Sir Nighteye was dead?! What the hell…? So that was something else that was different…

Toshinori continued, "But don't think that means I'm only doing this because I feel sorry for you, or that you're some project to relieve my guilt. I see a fire in you kid, one that even Nighteye didn't even have. I know you're the right choice."

Well I guess that was it for trying to convince him to give it to Deku…

I had to take this. I knew what was coming, even if things in the world were different. They would need someone with One for All to replace All Might, and sooner than I'd like…

They would need me.

"Alright… I'll do it. I'll inherit your quirk. I want to become a hero!"

"That's what I was hoping to hear, kid." Toshinori responds with a smile, "Meet me tomorrow at Dagoba Municipal Beach Park. There… Your training will begin. You need to have a proper body to accept my quirk or else it'll destroy you."

With that, he waved to me and walked back the way he came, through the alleyway.

I realized now I was going to be spending the next ten months training… Oh god.

I shook my head, for the moment, I needed to get home.

I wanted to be over the moon because of this, but really I was worried. How was I going to be half the hero that Deku was supposed to be? How am I supposed to be half the man All Might is?

I was just a regular guy… Now I'm here.

I walked back home as quickly as I could, getting back inside just as the sun was finishing setting and shut the door behind me, locking it.

The rest of the day was spent mulling things over - Reading the hero journal, discovering games to play on my computer, and ordering a pizza. This would probably be the last time I'd get to enjoy something like that for a little while.

When all was said and done, I went to bed tired, my head spinning, and overall anxious.

So began my journey… My journey to being a true hero.


	2. The Path to Heroism

**A/N:** I hope you all enjoy this chapter! I just have one thing to say: Expect some light spoilers for the Anime's later seasons! I write with the assumption that everyone reading has finished or is at least close to finished with the anime, or at least is okay with some light spoilers.

* * *

No amount of foresight could have prepared me for the coming trials, directed by All Might himself, in order to prepare me for exam day.

I had been anticipating a lot of hard work, sure, but actually doing the workout routine was different to watching it.

The exercise routine All Might came up was comprehensive and brutal, but it was necessary to get my body ready for his quirk - And for me to be able to completely match the other entrants in terms of strength.

Everyone in this world must eat more protein or have naturally higher strength - Because some of the things I had to pull off during those ten months were absolutely inhuman, and yet I somehow managed to pull it off.

Every part of my life became exercise, or about exercise, in some way shape or form. While I didn't do the exact same regiment as Deku - A given, considering I was taller and a bit thinner than he was, at least on the offset, I did end up having to clear that entire damn beach of trash.

The only thing keeping me from ending up falling on the ground like Deku did was that I knew not to overwork myself, I followed the plan exactly. I was never big on exercise in my old life, but this was for a different reason. This was for the sake of inheriting a power that could save a lot of lives in the future.

I couldn't slack off. Hell, I doubted I'd ever really get to slack off again.

The main thing that kept me from folding emotionally during all of this was the surprisingly strong friendship I developed with Izuku and his mom. As much as I loved just having a place to myself with no real financial worry, having the two of them to turn to when I was feeling down was always great, and 'Mama Midoriya' was always willing to fix an extra plate or bowl of whatever they were having for dinner when I couldn't summon the strength to cook for myself.

Five months into the exercising, things deviated rather greatly from how I remembered them going.

It was a modest September morning, Fall was on the precipice and Summer was taking its last breath for the year. I was already hard at work, hauling trash to where All Might had designated so it could be dumped.

All Might pulled in shortly after I dragged a run down hunk of metal that looked like it used to be a washing machine into the dumping area, and I rested against it as he walked up to me.

He waved and I waved back, in his skeletal form at the moment, he was wearing a trenchcoat that covered his entire form. "Already hard at work I see. Good work so far, this place looks a lot cleaner than it did five months ago."

"It isn't completely clean yet though." I respond, frowning to myself as I sweep my gaze over all the trash still left, "I want it to be completely clean. I want people to be able to come here with their friends, or family. Make happy memories, you know? They won't do that until this place doesn't have a speck of trash left. It's going to be hard doing that with only five months left."

Toshinori chuckled, "Easier than you might think. Now begins the second phase of your training. Which means…"

In the blink of an eye, he shifted back into his muscular form, "It is time for you to inherit my quirk!"

I blinked a few times in surprise at the suddenness, sure I'd been working hard, and I wasn't anywhere near Deku in terms of height and weight, but really, already?

I voiced my concerns, "Already, All Might? I still have a time before the exam!"

All Might laughs, "Exactly! Time that will be needed to train your quirk! You're fit, in good shape! You'll need this extra time to get even stronger, and to start on the road to mastering your quirk! It won't be easy, but you won't need to worry, because I am here!"

Cracking a small smile at his catchphrase, I shrug, "Alright, if you think I'm ready, then I'll accept your quirk now!"'

Keeping his wide grin, All Might gave me a thumbs up, before speaking as he reached up to pluck a hair from his head, "Young Okumura, I have chosen you to inherit my awesome power! With your heart, your courage, your bravery, and your kindness, you will become the next holder of One for All! Now… Eat this!"

This was the part I was dreading the most, I feigned surprise, "Excuse me?!"

"You have to ingest some of my DNA to inherit my quirk, that's how it works! Now eat!"

I knew this was the best option, so I took the hair and swallowed it, groaning in disgust once it cleared my throat.

"Very good, Young Okumura! It will take a few hours for the quirk to take effect, so let's get back to your exercise! We can't slow down just because we're waiting on the quirk!"

Getting off the ruined washing machine, I nodded, "Let's go then!"

The next few hours went on as normal, All Might directing me through several different exercises, carrying different objects that acted as makeshift weights of varying size and shape.

It was about three hours into the exercise routine when All Might changed from the skeletal form, which he had been in for the past few hours, and into his muscle form, and declared we would be changing things up, right as I finished dropping another piece of trash in today's dump pile.

"Alright, young Okumura! Your body should have had plenty of time to process the hair! Now, we're going to take it for a test drive!"

Looking to All Might, I wiped some sweat off my brow. He had changed into his skeletal form shortly after letting me ingest the hair, stating that he needed all the time he could squeeze out of his Quirked-Up form in order to help properly guide me through my first day with One for All.

This was new territory - Izuku had taken until the last minute to get the quirk, while I had been in just good enough shape to manage after five months, even if this wasn't the end of my training in the slightest.

It just served to make me anxious, because I wasn't sure what was going to happen in the slightest.

"Now, young Okumura. I'm going to demonstrate the power of One for All to you. This quirk is very powerful, even a smidgen of its strength can put you on par with other combatants. I don't want to attract too much attention to us, so this beach works perfectly. I will demonstrate a Smash to you. A culmination of strength, done in different ways, a Smash can have many different effects, as you've seen!"

All Might cocked his fist, tightening his body, and while facing the ocean, continued speaking, "You have to tighten your body, clench your butt-checks, and yell deep from your heart! SMAAASSHHHHH!"

At the yell, All Might sent his first forward. The sheer power in his punch kicked up the sand around him, sending out a powerful gale of wind and force that caused the waves to go backwards for a moment.

I shielded my eyes from the sand, feeling glad I wasn't wearing any clothes that I cared if they got sandy.

"Now, young Okumura! I want you to try! Careful now, the power of One for All is not to be taken lightly! If you can, try not to use all of its power!"

I felt a sudden spout of anxiety well up inside me as I bit my lip, I knew what happened to Deku the first time he tried using One for All.

Oh well, I knew more about One for All then he did at the time. I'd try… I'd try Full Cowl!

I shut my eyes as I stared out at the water and tried to imagine… Takoyaki in a microwave, like Deku did.

I think I have it…

I summoned One for All's power, and I felt the energy crackling around me, as I opened my eyes, I saw light blue energy sparking around me like electricity.

I was trying to only draw upon five percent of the power. I couldn't tell how much I was calling on now, but I hoped it was the right amount. The power was flowing through me, regardless...

I looked at All Might, he was staring at me, his grin was still there, but I could tell he was surprised.

I felt a bout of confidence, maybe my knowledge would come in handy?

I reeled my arm back, cocking my fist, and yelled as loud as I could, "SMAAASSHHH!"

 _BOOM!_

A powerful gust of wind, the same as All Might's accompanied by the same amount of force was aimed directly at the ocean, splitting it in half for just a moment as far as the force traveled, before crashing back down, sending water spray onto both of us.

Meanwhile, I was in immense pain.

"AAAGGHH!" The power of One for All faded as I gripped my now severely injured right arm with my left.

The pain was searing, firing on all cylinders as I tried to steady my breathing and hold back tears of pain. "S-Shit, this hurts!"

All Might rubbed the back of his head, "O-Oh dear! It seems I forgot about the sheer kick-back this thing can have, and what little control you have of it! Wait just a moment, I'll be right back!"

Then, All Might took off into the air, vanishing from my sight before I even had the chance to blink.

Meanwhile, I sat down on the sand and nursed both my broken arm and my bruised ego.

I thought I had this! I focused as hard as I could, tried to take the proper precautious, the power was-

The power! I must not be able to control One for All that precisely yet! Of course I would forget about that when it was most important! It seemed I wouldn't be able to control this quirk properly without breaking a few eggs…

And limbs.

I wonder how All Might did it…

I guess I'd need to ask Gran Torino for help, but how could I bring that up without letting All Might know I knew about him?

I tried my best to think about it while my arm continued to sting with the slightest bit of movement. I think the only thing that was good about this was that it wasn't completely flailing about everywhere like Deku's was the first time, but my arm was still useless in this state.

My thoughts started to simplify into terms like 'Pain' and 'Suffering' repeated ad nauseum as I cradled my defunct arm.

I was only sitting there about ten minutes, but it felt like a good hour when All Might finally returned, carrying a small old woman in his arms.

He set her down, and I was greeted with Recovery Girl, just as small and hobbly as I knew her to be.

"Look at you, poor dear!" She went over and kissed me on the cheek quickly, causing my arm to suddenly begin to straighten out and heal, the pain beginning to be replaced with comfort.

She turned around and looked at the Symbol of Peace, "All Might you know well and good that your quirk is powerful! You shouldn't be teaching your charge how to use it like that when you're nowhere near the safety of someone like me! Injuries like that take weeks to heal on their own, you know!"

All Might sheepishly rubbed behind his head, nodding a few times, "Sorry, Recovery Girl! I'd forgotten how hard to tame One for All can be for a newbie."

With my arm now recovered, I smiled, "Thank you ma'am, that seriously hurt."

She turned back to me, All Might seemed relieved to have the pressure taken off of him for a second, "You're welcome young man! So you're All Might's charge, hmm? He could have done worse! I assume you'll be applying to UA, then?"

I nod a few times, "Yes ma'am."

Recovery Girl hums, "Well you'll need a lot of prep for that, if you're going to get in without shattering all your limbs! All Might forgets just how much this quirk can hurt because he was such a prodigy with it!"

Suddenly getting an idea on how I could pose the question to All Might, I looked at him, "Speaking of, All Might, who taught _you_ how to use One for All?"

As the attention was brought back on All Might, he suddenly stiffened up, getting oddly evasive about the question, "Uhm, well! He's a great mentor, if a bit old now! He taught me everything I knew, so surely I could teach you as best I can myself!"

Recovery Girl scoffed, "All Might! You have no experience teaching! If you're going to be teaching the young man, maybe you should do a form of student teaching first?"

All Might was so surprised he started coughing up blood and poofed back into his skeletal form.

Toshinori wiped the blood from his mouth, sighing, "You think I need the help, Recovery Girl?"

Recovery Girl nods, "I know so, Toshinori. Please, put your pride aside for the time being. I'm sure with Gran Torino's help, you'll become a model teacher!"

He nods, "Well alright. I guess I'll need to pay him a visit…"

I went to stand up, rolling my arm, "Well, for now, what do I do?"

Toshinori taps his chin, "Why don't you take today off kid? I got a feeling tomorrow is going to be intense. Just enjoy your day."

Smiling, I nod, "Alright - But, one question first. It's been on my mind for awhile now."

All Might raises an eyebrow, "Yeah?"

Rubbing my arm due to still feeling some lingering tingling, I ask, "What am I going to tell people who knew I wasn't born with this Quirk? I know Katsuki is going to notice, and Izuku is going to light up over this when he finds out, but he'll ask a lot of questions."

He thinks to himself, crossing his arms, "Interesting question. I don't have an answer to that, but… Consider that your homework for tonight. Try to find a solution, young Okumura. It's not like we can go around telling people the truth about One for All, that would be disastrous."

I hum, before nodding, "Alright. I'll take a look, see you both later. I'm going to head home."

After bidding them farewell I went back to where I had left my backpack and grabbed it, before heading off. My home wasn't that far away, and walking was good exercise, so I didn't mind.

…

That night was spent enjoying my relaxation, but also lifting some weights I bought for myself after All Might suggested I always be doing some kind of physical activity when I found the time. I knew working on my arms would be important.

I wanted to avoid pulling a Deku and breaking my arms every five seconds if I could help it, although maybe I wouldn't be able to.

Time would tell with that front.

I did as All Might asked and went digging through the internet to try and find proof of people manifesting second quirks - I knew it was impossible in the show, but given how different things were, I had to keep my hopes up, otherwise it was going to get difficult to try and explain away my sudden powers to people who knew my old quirk.

Thankfully, threw some careful navigating, I found news articles and scholarly papers on rare instances of people manifesting a second quirk. It was usually caused by some kind of mutation in their DNA, something to do with their lineage. I wondered who was supposed to be my biological parents?

I guess I'd need to look them up later and try to hunt down their exact names and origins. I had a sneaking suspicion about Sir Nighteye… My mom, however, remained a complete mystery.

Surely I had to have some kind of paper trail? Birth certificate or something… I'd need to pay a visit to a government building to get that information, I guess. Unless I miraculously met someone who knew my parents and I could somehow squeeze the information out of them without going up and saying 'Hey! Who were my parents? I don't know them at all despite them having raised me for years before apparently dying.'

Either way… I guess I had an excuse now. I would keep my quirk hidden from Izuku and Katsuki for now, though. I wanted to surprise Izuku with it, as I knew he'd be gushing over it, and Katsuki would probably lose his mind at me suddenly being able to somewhat match him.

Even though I know regardless of how long I spend training the quirk over the next five months, he would still be able to beat me in a fair fight.

Just because I have a powerful Quirk now doesn't mean I can beat people who've had their entire lifetime to train with their own. I knew that from watching the show and seeing Izuku get beaten squarely by Bakugo and Todoroki repeatedly.

Either way, with my answer found, I went about the rest of my night and then went to sleep.

….

The next day brought something different, as I had expected it to for once. It was a nice change that I had a part in something being different instead of being blindsided by it.

When I arrived at the beach, already in my workout attire that consisted of windbreaker pants, a jacket, with an undershirt and shorts underneath, I was met with two people.

One was All Might, currently in his muscle form, sporting his usual grin and some standard attire.

Next to him was a very small and hobbly looking man in a hero's costume. I knew this to be Gran Torino, just as small as I thought he'd be.

I waved to All Might and gave a small bow to Gran Torino, "All Might, it's good to see you, and this must be your old mentor, right?"

All Might nods, "Indeed! This is Gran Torino." He seemed apprehensive, even though he hid it well under his usual veneer of boisterous behavior.

Gran Torino humphs, "So this is your successor, hmm, All Might? Very well. What has he taught you so far, young man?"

I scratched the back of my head, "Well he's had me on an exercise plan to get my body ready for the quirk. Yesterday I got the quirk and he showed me how to use it as a Smash, but I broke my arm when I tried it. I don't seem to have control over the power the Quirk gives me yet, even though I was only trying to summon a small amount of it."

The old man nods, "So the first day you had your quirk and he opted to teach you to use its most powerful move!" He takes his walking cane and casually smacks All Might on the leg, it didn't seem to hurt the Symbol of Peace, but it definitely made him wince. "Toshinori that's careless, even for you!"

All Might sweats a bit visibly, "I'm kinda new to this whole teaching thing, Gran Torino! It's why Recovery Girl suggested I bring you out here, to help me learn to teach this young man before the school year starts and I lose the luxury of having all the free time I do to teach him."

Gran Torino hums, "Very well! Now, young man. Have you attempted to shroud yourself in One for All's power?"

I respond with a nod, "Yes sir. I couldn't control the energy level I was at, though."

"Hmm, you're a smart young man! To think of that all on your own. If you hadn't, it could have taken a long time for someone to teach you, how long, I don't know."

' _About two seasons,'_ I muse to myself in dry amusement.

"Well, what do we do about it?" I ponder, "I can't train myself by punching, I'd be breaking my arms constantly."

"It's simple, one of you should have thought about it by now!" The old hero chastises both of us, "You will simply need to channel your quirk across your form while doing the rest of this exercise, you will need to be very careful! One wrong move could destroy your arms, or the rest of you."

"No pressure, got it." I jokingly respond.

All Might laughs a few times, while Gran Torino just grunts.

So began my training routine, Version Two.

The new routine was something else. I had to be very careful not to move too hard or too fast when summoning the power of One for All across my body, otherwise I'd risk destroying myself. Carrying the objects became trivial, the new challenge was not breaking my body while doing it.

From that day up until about two months in, Gran Torino was at every training session, overseeing my progress and instructing me in new ways. He was like a grouchy version of Yoda, honestly, I was surprised he never leapt on my back and commanded me to march onward through a swamp.

That day never came though, instead we continued to adapt to things as they changed. I realized, for example, that I couldn't maintain Full Cowl over my body for the entire training exercise due to my lack of control. So I switched to channeling One for All into different parts of my body and working them on different days.

My arms, my legs, my chest, that sort of thing.

It was like trying to contain the raw power of a nuclear bomb without it going off. Except instead of taking the whole city with me if I failed, I'd just be dying.

That was only slightly less pressure on myself.

Pressure or no pressure, I pushed on. Days melted into months, and on the second month Gran Torino stated that he'd be leaving All Might to continue the training and that he hoped he learned something from observing.

It was weird seeing someone talk to All Might like he was still some youngster, but I guess there were always going to be people older than you.

After that, All Might continued training. He was a lot more… Restrained with his methods then he used to be, when it came to teaching me with his quirk anyways. When I was tired from channeling the power, we switched to the old routine of simply working on my body itself.

By the end of the five months, I was no longer having such a hard time controlling One for All, but I was nowhere near the level I needed to be to control Full Cowl completely. Smashes still broke my arms if I tried, which there were only a couple times when I did.

All in all, if I had to compare myself to where Deku would have been at this point, I was in a better place, but not that much better. It would have been amazing to be able to control Full Cowl right out of the gate, but it seemed that just wasn't meant to be. I'd need to continue to work on it as time went on.

I guess that was all I could ask for given that I hadn't _asked_ for any of this to happen. Being thrust into the lead role when I had been planning to play out as a side character wasn't something I expected.

Then again, when I threw myself at that gunmen in the mall before I died, I didn't expect to get talked to by a snarky blonde goddess and thrown into a world at least based off of my favorite anime.

Yep, I didn't ask for any of this, but this was the hand I was dealt. I'd just have to take it in stride and try not to die.

…

The morning of the exam arrived without fanfare, just the beeping of my alarm clock to get me up early.

I groggily checked the alarm clock to see if it went off when I wanted it to.

5:30 AM.

The same time I'd been waking up almost every day for the past ten months now.

I couldn't believe I'd been here nearly a year already…

Everything still felt so foreign to me.

I mused on this as I stood up and began my morning stretches.

It wasn't the fault of anyone around me really, I continued to talk with Izuku when I could and did my best to ignore Katsuki, which was easy enough given that I didn't even seem to be on his radar.

I'd probably be insulted by that if it didn't spare me from his constant yelling, plus I knew I'd be thrown right up there on his 'threats to my superiority' list once today was over.

It's not like I hated him, I didn't, probably because I was one of the people who watched loads of videos trying to justify why he was such a prick. It wasn't really his fault, it was just more proof that this society had its flaws.

Then again, all of them did.

Beyond people, I hadn't really… Gone anywhere. At least, not anywhere that would help me feel like I was part of the community or anything.

There was the grocery store, which I used purely for buying food and some other items that I needed, the beach, which I had finished cleaning up yesterday after school. Unsupervised by All Might, for once. I wanted to surprise him.

Then there was school and… Well, this place.

I guess it was my home.

I knew things would probably change in the future, although at this point I couldn't be 100% certain of anything that was going to happen.

I was kind of excited at the prospect of the dorms… But that was a long way away, if it ever came at all.

Finishing my stretches, I went and grabbed the outfit I'd be wearing during the written exam and orientation.

The entrance exam came in two parts - The written exam and practical exam, with the written exam coming first, then the orientation that prepares students for the practical exam.

I'd spent yesterday after my final beach cleanup and exercise routine trying to remember everything I could about how the entrance exam was supposed to go.

It'd be really anticlimactic if I got this far only to botch the exam and have to go to some other school.

From what I remembered of how the exam entrants scored, the practical exam was not the be-all end-all of getting into 1-A or 1-B, or indeed getting in at all. At least, the points weren't.

I obviously couldn't remember all the scorings but I did remember that at least one or two people who scored highly went on to be class 1-B members, which seemed to indicate they had some other criteria involved in sorting who went where.

I'd have to score well enough on both the written and practical exams in order to not only get into UA, but get into 1-A.

I had a vested interest in getting into that class, mostly because that's the one that had the most… Events going on around it.

Besides, I couldn't think of a worse fate than getting stuck in 1-B with the lunatic who eventually drove himself crazy with his jealousy of 1-A.

Okay, maybe the worst fate would be not getting into UA at all.

I took my clothes and went to go shower, making it quick so I could dress and head down to meet All Might.

I resolved to get there before him, to surprise him with how clean I managed to make the beach.

Then again maybe he wouldn't exactly be too surprised, but he'd be pleased. After all, I had been cleaning with the aid of a quirk lately. Almost like a super-powered Janitor or something.

Pretty sure I'd read a comic book like that once before…

Regardless, I also wasn't worried about eating because I could probably order something from someplace on my way to UA.

It probably wouldn't be the healthiest or most measured thing I could eat, but I would be burning it off today anyways.

If there was one thing this exercise business taught me, it was how to better look after myself. I was in the best shape of both this life and the last one, and I honestly felt… Pretty great, all things considered.

This realization made me smile to myself as I jogged towards the beach.

I didn't know how long it would last, hell for all I knew I'd be cursing my life choices by the end of today, but right now I felt relatively content.

I didn't pass by anyone I knew on the run - Other early risers like me, I think I saw a hero patrol on the other street, but I didn't recognize the heroes, and the occasional stray animal.

Arriving at the beach, I walked down the parking lot and to the railing overlooking the beach.

I succeeded in my goal of making it look just as clean as Deku did in the show, even if I needed to use the power of One for All to make carrying these things a bit easier on me.

It took another ten minutes before Toshinori pulled up in the usual truck he drove here, getting out and stopping, looking around, before heading over to me.

"You cleaned this whole place didn't you? Even outside the bounds I set for you."

"Hey, I said I was going to do it, and I did it. Even if I cheated a little bit."

He turns into his Muscle Form before letting off his grand laugh, "Young Okumura, there is no such thing as cheating when it comes to things like this! Remember that!"

I turn to fully face him and smile, "Alright, All Might, I will! Anything else I need to know before I go?"

"Just try not to overdo it out there, young man! You may have been training these past five months with your quirk, but you'll still hurt yourself with it!"

"I'll do my best, but I can't promise I won't leave in a bit of a busted up state based on what I've heard about the practical exam."

All Might nods, although his voice held some concern, "Just try not to take it too far, and be mindful of others! The power of One for All is not to be taken lightly, and you could accidentally end up hurting someone with it."

That was true, one misplaced blast of my power and I could easily knock someone out, or worse.

Hopefully I'd end up maybe saving someone today, instead of hurting them.

"Oh, that reminds me All Might. I found out that in rare cases a second quirk _can_ manifest in an individual, it's extremely rare, but that excuse should be enough to work as long as people don't go digging too deep, and I don't think they will. Izuku is very trusting and Katsuki probably won't care."

All Might's grin seems to broaden, if that was even possible, "Perfect! Now, young man, I've got work to do! I'll speak with you later!"

I wave and bid the Symbol of Peace goodbye as he leaps into the air and takes off over the city. With how powerful his strength and speed were, you'd be excused for thinking he was flying. Instead, his movements were more akin to extremely powerful leaps.

All Might was so powerful… And I was meant to surpass him some day.

I knew now how Deku felt, it was a shit ton of pressure on one person to look at someone like All Might and know that you're expected to be… More than them some day.

Izuku seemed to become more of his own man as time went on in the show, I wondered if I would do that as well?

Guess time would tell.

With All Might gone, I rolled my shoulders and started a light jog.

I'd need to take the train to get to UA on time, the other option was trying to boost myself with my Quirk, but I didn't want to risk it, besides, I could potentially get in trouble for unauthorized Quirk use if something went wrong.

After all, it's not like I'd be able to mask the blue power that seemed to spark off my body when I tried focusing One for All.

Either way, I also picked up some food on my way to the train from a fast food place. It wasn't much, just a burger.

Was it healthy? Absolutely not. I'd definitely need to burn it off later.

Oh well, I had finished it and thrown away the trash left by it and the drink I bought with it by the time the train came to a stop at my destination.

The walk to UA was relatively easy with the directions I had from my phone, and once at the gates, the sheer size of the H shaped building really hit me as I stood outside the entry way for a moment.

It was a lot grander to see in person, the real scale of the building, the statues… They all hit you.

This place looked more like a college than a high school, but that was just sort of what things were like now.

Before I could stand and stare any longer, I heard a familiar voice call to me, "Hey, Akio!"

I turned to greet my friend, "Hey Izuku." I raised my hand in greeting.

The green haired wonder grinned, "Ready for the exam?" He was holding onto his bag with both hands on it, he always kind of carried himself like a simple school boy, despite what we were all aiming to be.

"Yep, I have a few tricks up my sleeve."

"Great! S-Speaking of tricks, could I ask you for a favor?"

I quirked an eyebrow, "What's up Izu?"

Izu scratches his cheek, "Could you use your quirk and see how I'll do on the test?"

Blinking in surprise, I slip my hands into my jacket pockets. "You want me to see into your future? You realize if I wanted to I could predict basically your entire life, right?"

A nervous nod is given by Deku Tree. "I know, but I trust you. I don't want to know the details of everything, but I'd like to know how I might do."

"Well alright." I pat him on the arm a few times, "Let's see…"

"Don't you have to be touching my head or something?"

"Eh, about that. I kind of lied, I just have to make contact with you."

"W-Wha? Why lie about that?"

"To keep people on their toes. I don't mind telling you because it's not like you're ever going to betray me or something."

"Right, of course I won't!"

I nod and look into Izuku's eyes, calling upon Foresight…

 _Izuku took his test, before the practical exam ensued. He strategically melted robots with tactical fire breath to critical areas and the occasional strong burst of fire that left him coughing up smoke._

 _Further into the practical exam, the zero point robot was revealed, towering over the mock city._

 _Izuku spotted Uraraka, who had fallen and sustained minor injuries and was in serious danger of being crushed. He hurried over as fast as he could, pulling her into his arms in a fireman carry and running like a bat out of hell away from the robot, just in time for the end of the test to be announced and the robot to be deactivated._

I willed Foresight to stop, and blinked, looking at the expectant Izuku and smiling. "You'll do just fine."

He let out a heavy breath, "Phew, thanks for the reassurance. Let's go!"

We started walking, Izuku seemed very optimistic thanks to the reassurance I gave him.

I could foresee his movements, thanks to Foresight. I remembered that being part of the package, it was powerful if I used it correctly, but I wasn't sure how often I'd really get to use it, given its conditions.

I predicted he was about to fall, but that Uraraka would still catch him.

So, I merely stayed quiet as Izuku started talking about how excited he was for the test, until he suddenly tripped over himself and began to take a dive.

Uraraka jumped in and saved him with her quirk, exclaiming, "Careful!" Then giggling as Izuku began to flail about, she then set him down upright before releasing her quirk, "I used my quirk to stop you from falling, sorry I didn't ask first!"

She began to talk to Deku about how nervous she was and how exciting all of this seemed to be, before quickly bidding him farewell as he struggled to speak and heading off to the entrance.

Izuku seemed to be stuck in a weird bubbly trance until I nudged him on his back, causing him to jump a bit, "Wha- Oh, sorry! I-I guess I got a bit distracted there."

I laugh a bit, "Yeah. Distracted by the first cute girl you talk to Izu, what are you going to do with your life?"

He flushed red, waving his hands quickly, "That's not it! I-It's not because she was cute! I was just-"

"So you admit she's cute, huh?"

"Wha- Agh!" He groans and facepalms, before shuffling off, with me on his tail as I smirked to myself. It sure was fun to tease him, I had to admit.

…..

The written exam came to me easily, thanks to the rigorous studying that had been paired with my exercise to prepare me for it. After all, a sharp mind was just as important as a strong body.

Afterwards was Orientation. We were all funneled into the Hero Course Orientation and seated based on our number. Being from the same school, I was sat on one side of Izuku, while Katsuki was seated on the other side.

The giant auditorium was positively intimidating and somewhat suffocating in the sheer size combined with just how many people were here. Every single person in the room except for the person giving the orientation was someone who wanted to be a Hero. Someone who wanted desperately to get into UA.

Thankfully, the lights came on upfront and Present Mic, standing behind something of a desk and in front of a giant television screen, began to speak, his tone energetic and voice loud enough to carry across the entire room.

"What's up, UA Candidates?! Thanks for tuning in to me, your school DJ! Come on and LEMME HEAR YA!"

...Silence.

Present Mic played it off, "Keepin it mellow huh? That's fine, I'll skip straight to the main show! Let's go over how this practical exam is gonna go down! Are you REAADYYY?!"

...More silence.

Well, mostly.

Deku began to mutter to himself with a starstruck tone to his voice as he seemed to be nerding out over Present Mic at the moment.

"Ugh, shut up." Katsuki grumbled, causing Deku to fall silent. At least for now.

Normally I'd be against Katsuki talking down to Izuku, but he was being kind of loud with his mumbling.

As Present Mic's presentation continued, explaining how the robots were going to work, Katsuki pointed out how we were split up in different battle areas because we were from the same school.

After his little exchange with Izuku, and the poor green haired boy shaking in his boots, I nudged Izuku. "You'll do fine." I mutter, "Remember?"

Izuku takes a deep breath, before nodding, "Right!" He whispers back, "Thanks."

I nod, and we both 'tune in' to Present Mic as he continues his explanation.

Well, I did. Deku continued to mutter to himself about things as the explanation went on, drawing the ire of Iida that I was expecting. After being properly shamed, he stayed quiet for the rest of the presentation.

Once the presentation was over, we were all directed to our battle centers.

I joined testing group C at their zone, waiting outside for the timer to start.

We had all been allowed to change into clothes suitable for physical activity, and I did just that. Changing into a zip-up grey jacket, a blue T-shirt, and a pair of shorts. Not exactly a tracksuit, but I felt this would allow for more fluid movement.

I looked over the other entrants, I didn't recognize most of them, but some of them seemed to be 1-A students. I recognized Momo Yayorozu, Tsuyu Asui, and Mezo Shoji.

None of them were facing me so I didn't get that 'up-close' look I'd gotten for everyone else yet, although with Shoji that was a bit of a blessing, given that his… Mutated arms kind of creeped me out.

I wondered if Tsuyu's cuteness would transfer over well or if she would look like some freakish frog demon?

As for Momo, well, I don't think there was any way she _wasn't_ going to be attractive, given how 1:1 every other normal human's appearance had been. That just meant there were a lot of incredibly cute girls hanging around.

I wasn't really interested in starting any relationships though, so I pushed the thought out of my head. I'd acknowledge cuteness, but romance? Not my desire. I'm sure the girls in Class 1-A and 1-B all had people they were already destined to be with.

That was a depressing thought. I was kind of an outlier here, wasn't I?

I didn't get to mull that over more as Present Mic's voice came on over the intercom, "Alright Candidates, look sharp! You've got ten minutes to score as many points as you can! Ready… GO!"

The doors flew open to the mock city, and we all charged inside.

My first taste of… Well, mock combat! I'd get to try out One for All against something that wasn't literal trash… This was exciting! And a little bit anxiety inducing.

The sounds of battle began to emit all across the mock city soon after we entered as entrants spread out and began fighting with all their hearts and minds.

I began to plan as I ran around, I could use One for All a lot better than Deku could during this phase now, but it still hurt me to use it and I couldn't use Full Cowl right now. I needed a plan…

Suddenly, I knew what I had to do.

I began to sprint around at full speed, picking up small pieces of rubble and using them to attract the attention of the weaker bots as I went.

It took effort to get bots that weren't already being attacked or had the attention of another student, but soon I was being chased by a veritable posse of one and two pointers.

They were firing their weapons at me, and I just had to do my best to dodge using my own reflexes. I was almost dancing across the battlefield because of how much I had to dodge, and I heard some people laughing and observing rather than doing anything to 'help' me.

Soon, I found my final target.

I led the small bot ensemble in front of a three pointer, currently facing someone in the distance, then began to channel One for All into one of my fingers.

With a flick of my index finger, a massive burst of force and air shredded through the robots, causing them to explode and add to the chain of effects that sent down even the three pointer. The chain reaction wasn't the biggest or flashiest thing, but I could tell I scored a good few points by taking out all those bots at once.

It sure as hell hurt my finger though - I think the adrenaline was dulling the pain, because otherwise I'd be screaming in agony at the moment.

I noticed one of the other students staring at me awestruck, I just waved and smiled, "Nothing to see here."

They blinked and ran off to get more pointed.

I dusted off my jacket and prepared to move forward, only to be stopped by a blur of motion over my shoulder and…

 _CRASH!_

An object hit a robot that was positioned almost directly behind me.

I whirled around and saw a steel spear sticking out of the sensitive piece of a two-pointer robot, before turning back to the source.

Standing a few feet from me was Momo Yayorozu, and I immediately confirmed she was just as beautiful in-person as she was in the show.

"Watch your back! Even the best heroes can get caught off guard if they don't pay attention to their surroundings." She chides me.

I didn't know how to properly respond, but I had to think quickly… Hmm, aha! "That spear… Was that a carbon-lined titanium spear with a monomolecular point?"

Momo looked surprised at me, and I responded, "I'll take that as a yes! Cool. Would love to talk more, but I've got points to earn!"

Then, I rushed past her to try and get more points.

...So I may have remembered some of the best ways to get the people of 1-A to like me and studied up on them. One of them happened to be learning about the structure of certain common objects that I knew Momo would create. I was lucky that I happened across one so soon. Good first impression and all that!

I spent the next three minutes trying to found up another posse of bots, but I found that to be particularly hard to do when most of them had already been destroyed by the contestants in one way or another, with plenty of time left on the clock before we were due to stop.

It ended up being me loitering almost alone while I tried to pinpoint if there might be any potential bots left in the city before the zero-pointer came out. I knew all hell would break loose when it did.

I didn't get to plan long though, as soon the shaking of the ground and the sudden crumbling of several buildings signaled the arrival of the zero pointer, who started rising out of the ground like some angry earth god.

Some students began to ran past me, scared out of their wits, while I was leaning on the wall of a building.

I got off the wall and studied the robot with wide eyes, that thing was _easily_ the size of UA itself! How did they hide these things?!

As more students flooded past me, one of them stopped and asked in shock wonder, "I-Is that a person on top of that thing?!"

What the hell?

I squinted closely… Sure enough, it seemed like as the robot was rising out of wherever it had been stored, someone had ended up on top of it as it rose higher and higher.

Well, shit.

"How the hell are they gonna get down?!"

"The teachers need to do something!"

"I bet they didn't plan for someone to get stuck on top of the giant robot!"

Various students were talking in panicked tones as they simply watched in horror, knowing their quirks couldn't do anything about it.

...Mine could, though.

I started walking towards the robot, then jogging.

If Deku was in this situation in the show, I know exactly what he would do! I know what any true hero would do!

Risk their life to save someone who couldn't help themselves!

The students gasped, one of them shouting, "H-Hey?! What are you doing?"

I didn't respond as I squinted and began to close the distance.

Just a little closer…

The ground began to shake a bit more the closer I got, the robot's movements shaking the very earth itself to the core.

Facing a titan, I channeled One for All into my legs, I knew this was going to hurt and hurt like hell, but hurting myself was nothing compared to saving whoever somehow got themselves trapped up there!

With blue energy crackling around my legs, I leaped hundreds of feet in the air, mimicking All Might's take off. The wind flowing through my hair and on my face was almost enough to dull out the searing pain I was already feeling from both my legs breaking simultaneously from this release of power.

My jacket had come unzipped from the sudden burst of upward force, I just hoped I didn't lose the thing before I landed!

As I drew closer to the face of the monstrous robot, I could begin to make out the person on top of it better, but not exactly.

"When you hear me yell, jump! I'll catch you!"

I knew they hear me because I saw their form turn to face me specifically, whoever they were, their body language portrayed some measure of shock.

I just had to hope they knew what I said, and listened!

I reeled back the arm that had already been damaged, forcing the fingers to close. I guess they weren't entirely broken yet, but they were about to be!

I'd always wanted to do what I was about to do…

As I put my whole body into my punch, energy crackling as I closed in on the robot, I yelled at the top of my lungs, "ARIZONA…. SMAAASSHHHH!"

My very own Smash!

I drove my fist into the Robot's face, causing it to begin to reel back, the force from the punch and the wind that accompanied it sent it falling back, causing the girl on the robot's head to jump towards me in a bid for survival.

My whole body screaming in pain and protest, I forced myself to focus and opened my one non-broken arm as I began to fall back. As the girl fell towards me, we crashed into each other, and I wrapped my around her, "Gotcha!"

"Ribbit!"

I looked in surprise, seeing it was none other than Tsuyu.

Her face was flushed somewhat and mine probably would be to if I wasn't in horrible pain.

Damn it, she was just as cute in person as she was in the show!

No time to think about that though, we were starting to fall at an incredible rate towards the ground.

"Can you stop us, ribbit?" Tsu asked, needing to speak up over the howl of the wind despite both of us holding on to each other.

"Normally, yeah! But almost all my limbs are broken right now! Got any ideas before we die?"

Tsu looked around, not seeming the least bit scared, but I knew that was probably just because of how unemotive her face was, "You didn't think this through much did you?"

"Not particularly! Just kinda moved!"

As we continued to sail towards the ground, Tsuyu seemed to form an idea in her head, ejecting her improbably long tongue out of her mouth and wrapping it around a miniature flagpole that was jutting out of the side of one of the buildings.

She used the counterbalance the flagpole gave to start swinging us down at a lower velocity, but she soon unlatched her tongue, and I called out, "Another one over there!" Pointing to another similar flagpole a bit lower on another building.

Tsu quickly shot her tongue out again and caught the flagpole, using it to swing us even closer to the ground.

Is this what it felt like when Spider-Man did web slinging in his comics? I had to wonder.

The tension began to leave the closer we got to the ground, Tsuyu finding new places to swing from as we got closer to the ground.

Eventually, we reached a point where we were close enough to the ground that we didn't need to grab onto something new.

I had been kind of hoping for a gentle landing, but neither of us were really prepared for landing at the speed we were still going at.

Once we made contact with the ground, we both rolled on the asphalt, both letting off grunts and oofs of pain before we ended up stopping, both on the ground.

Silence, and then…

Cheering.

It seems a good bit of the students had watched us in action, and I couldn't help but smile a bit despite the horrid pain.

Tsu got up shakily, and was still shaking a bit when she regained her balance, although that seemed to be from the adrenaline running through her body.

"You alright?" I ask, craning my neck to look at her.

I could see now, she was wearing what looked to be a tracksuit, kind of like what several other students had opted for. Me being the exception of course, along with a few other people.

She looked at me and tilted her head, "Uh, shouldn't I be asking you that?"

Weakly, I laughed, "M-Maybe! Must be funny having someone with three broken limbs asking you if you're alright."

The Frog Girl seemed to smile a little bit, but it was hard to tell with how naturally implacable her facial features were, "I'm fine, but you're not."

"I will be! Just as soon as-"

Right then, two things happened at once.

First, the alarm went off and Present Mic declared, "Time's up candidates!"

Then, someone called to me.

"Okumura!" I heard the familiar voice of Recovery Girl as she hobled her way over to me.

I craned my neck back, ending up laying my head on the concrete, "Recovery Girl! G-Good to see you!"

"No use acting strong with three broken limbs, Mr. Okumura!" She promptly kissed me on my forehead, and all my limbs began to restore themselves to proper working order.

As my limbs were getting restored and my injuries healed, she looked at Tsuyu, "Young lady, are you alright?"

Tsu scratched her cheek, "Other than the taste of flagpole, I'm fine. Thank you ma'am."

Recovery Girl then went around checking on the other students who had gathered around, offering some gummies as well.

As my limbs restored themselves, I sat up on the ground and Tsu offered my her hand. I took it and stood up, before turning the helping hand into a handshake, "Akio Okumura. Weird way to meet, huh?"

Tsu nods, "Tsuyu Asui."

"Well, good playing hero with you Asui."

"You can call me Tsu, Ribbit!"

I couldn't help but smile as I let go of her hand, "Noted. Hope we'll be classmates, your quirk seems really reliable. Unlike mine."

"Yours is powerful, but you break easy." She notes, "What was it you yelled when you hit the robot? I couldn't hear properly."

"U-Uhh, nothing really. Just a little battle cry."

"Well, alright, Ribbit."

I grinned at her, then we were all instructed to head back as our exam was over. We were free to gather our stuff and leave.

"Well hey, hopefully I'll see you around." There was no reason for me not to be nice to the future Frog Heroine, she was a nice person after all, and she did kind of just save me life after I tried to save hers.

"Maybe, if we both beat the odds and get in despite the low acceptance rate."

My grin _almost_ faltered, but I knew we'd get in. "Y-Yeah, exactly!"

So, we all left. We'd be awaiting the news for one week.

…

The week went by quickly.

I'd spent a lot of it hanging out with Izuku, talking about what we thought our test results were.

The first day I spent at his house that week was probably the most interesting.

No sooner than when I had come inside and sat on his couch did he get all in my face and exclaim, "I heard some people talking about you, they said you smashed a giant robot in the face after leaping hundreds of feet in the air?! How? Your quirk is foresight! This shouldn't be possible, unless it was some hidden facet of your quirk!"

He was talking about a mile a minute but I got the gist of his question and gently pushed him back to give me my personal space, waving my hand, "I can explain. It seems my body has… Mutated. I've developed another quirk. They say it's rare but possible that sometimes a second quirk will manifest in someone's body. I'm one of the few people in the world with two quirks now."

Izuku gasped, "Oh my god that's amazing! You need to tell me about your quirk!"

"I-I don't know much about it myself right now to be honest! I don't have a load of control over it just yet, but it's really powerful." I demonstrated by channeling One for All into my arm for a moment, letting its blue energy spark off my arm harmlessly before turning it off.

Immediately, Izuku took out one of his many hero notebooks and began to write it down, "Can you do that again and just pose with it for a second? I want to sketch it!"

"Uhh… Sure?" I figured why not, and summoned it again, "Just don't take too long okay? It gets tiring holding it like this, and if I accidentally move my arm too fast I'll probably blow a hole in your apartment's wall."

Mama Midoriya called from the kitchen, "Please don't do that!"

I called back, "I won't, Mrs. Midoriya!"

Izuku continued sketching, before stopping, "Alright, you can drop it!"

And so I did, sighing in relief and rolling my arm.

"Tell me about it! I need to write more down!"

Damn, I should have known Izuku would get all nerdy about this. No shame in that, mind, but I needed to avoid outing myself to him unless All Might gave me the green light to tell him.

Come to think of it, I'd probably ask him for permission next time I saw him. Knowing Izuku's role in the show… It was too weird having him _not_ know about One for All.

I guess that would come later.

Either way, I told him what I could. Which mainly was me sounding like I was guessing its ability - That it was some kind of booster quirk that enhanced my strength and speed to near superhuman levels, but I didn't know to what extent and my body hadn't adjusted to using it properly yet so it hurt me to use it too much.

I told him I didn't have a name for it yet, so he just marked it as an unknown quirk and we continued talking about other stuff for the rest of the day as I tried to get Deku to ask less questions about it.

The rest of the week was relatively easy going, in the following days Izuku and I mostly talked about what our hopes for UA were, and what we thought our chances of getting in were, among other things. He tried to get me to use Foresight to tell him if he'd gotten in or not, but I told him it was probably better to keep the suspense up, which might have made him a bit sad, but oh well.

The letter arrived in my mail slot and I hurriedly took it to my room and opened it, dumping out the letter and the hologram that came with it.

The hologram turned on almost immediately.

"I AM HERE AS A HOLOGRAM!"

I leaned back and smiled as the recording began to play out.

All Might laughed, "YES, IT IS I, ALL MIGHT! Sorry, it's been awhile, but with great responsibility comes a lot of paperwork! Anyways!"

He gestured grandly, "Akio Okumura! You scored very well on the written exam, and got a fair bit of villain points! There were others who scored much higher, yes, but we do not judge purely on strength alone! Indeed, your heroic actions were noted, and there was a hidden criteria none of the students knew about!"

Well, i did, but that's not what drove me to jump at that giant robot.

A video began to play over All Might's voice, it was footage of me punching the robot and catching Tsu, "Akio Okumura, for risking your life to save someone you had no practical reason to save, you were awarded sixty rescue points! Tsuyu Asui, for using her quick thinking and talents to get you both down safely and thus rescue you in turn, was awarded fifty rescue points!"

I couldn't help but grin as All Might continued his speech, so I was in. This was it.

With another boisterous laugh, and his trademark grin, All Might came back on screen, "You have passed the entrance exam. Your hard work and dedication have paid off, young man!" He extends his hand to me, "Akio. I welcome you… To the Hero Academia!"

My grin fades into a smirk as the projection cuts off.

"Welcome…" I mutter to myself, "To My Hero Academia."


	3. Akio's Hero Academia

The day after the letter came, All Might contacted me and asked me to meet him at the beach, I was pretty excited to see him again after everything that had happened so I agreed and made my way out to meet him.

It was just a light jog back to the beach, and something that made me smile was seeing a couple at the Gazebo that extended out across a boardwalk and overlooked the ocean. It just showed that my hard work was already paying off and people were already starting to make happy memories here.

Of course I couldn't focus on them too long, Toshinori was waiting for me on the currently abandoned beach, I waved to him as I jogged down the steps and stopped in front of him. "Hey-" I almost called him 'All Might', but I remembered Deku's mistake in the show and said, "Mr. Toshinori."

He lets off a short laugh at the name, "If you have to call me something other than… You know, just call me Toshinori. Mr makes me feel old."

"Aren't you like… Fifty?"

A slightly indignant frown played on Toshinori's features, "T-That doesn't matter! Anyways, congrats on getting in." He raised his and for a high five, which I reciprocated.

"All thanks to you, Toshinori, I couldn't have gotten in without you."

Changing to a slight smile, he responded, "Speaking of. I didn't have anything to do with you getting accepted. I wasn't a judge and I didn't pull any strings for you, that was all you. The only person who knows I've been training you at UA is Recovery Girl."

I return the smile, "That's good to know, that it was all my own merit. It's nice to hear you're going to be a teacher at UA, you're going to be able to keep a close eye on me there, eh? Then again I guess that's why you came here in the first place, huh? To find a candidate."

He shrugs, "Something like that. I had some ideas for who I wanted, but you stuck out to me kid, and I know I made the right choice."

Sliding my hands into my jacket pockets in an effort to look casual, I decide to broach the question that had been on my mind, "By the way Toshinori… What if there's someone I really want to tell about… You know, the truth?"

His face grew serious, "Who and why?"

"Izuku Midoriya, and… Because he's my best friend, and I trust him with it. He might even be able to help me with it… He's very analytical and one of your biggest fans. He might have some ideas for helping me with the quirk that neither of us have thought about."

All Might gained a thoughtful look on his face and stroked his chin, "Well… Alright. You can tell him, but nobody else, alright? Remember, it's important as few people as possible know about the truth of One for All. The less people know about it, the less of a chance that the truth may get out there somehow."

A grin breaks out on my face, "Thank you, seriously! Now, about… Getting stronger. How much longer do you think until I can control One for All's power flow?"

"Honestly? I'm not sure kid. It shouldn't take you too much longer, but that really depends on a lot of different factors, and even after you gain control, you still won't be at your full potential. It'll take time for you to get to maximum power, but once you do… You'll be even more powerful than I was in my prime."

"That's… A lot to take in. I don't know how anyone can be _stronger_ than you are, prime or not."

"Trust me, it's how One for All works. It only gets stronger with each passage, one day you'll be stronger than me, and you will one day pass it on to a new holder, who will become stronger than you. Hard to believe it, but it'll happen, and it may just be necessary. Quirks have only been getting stronger in general over the years, not just One for All."

I rub my chin, "I think I heard about that… Some scientists believe that one day quirks will be so powerful that we can't contain them, they call it the Quirk Singularity, right?"

"Right, but if such a thing will happen, I imagine we're still far, far away from it. Anyways, how about we go for a run and some good, refreshing exercise?"

"Sounds good to me!"

Toshinori turns into his muscle form in the blink of an eye, his grin remaining as we began to run with each other down the beach. All Might wasn't going at his full speed, of course, I wouldn't be able to keep up with him if he did, but he was going at _my_ full speed, which kept my legs burning.

Just another day in the life.

….

After the exercise I went home and showered - School was officially out, as weird as it was to be out of school in February, but that was just because a subconscious part of me was still used to the American education system.

I knew Izuku was still home, so I texted him and asked him if he wanted to come over to my apartment. I normally came over to his, but given what I wanted to tell him, I figured it'd be better if I could be 100% sure his mom was out of earshot.

Izuku texted me back with an affirmation that he'd be coming over, which worked out for me. I had plenty to watch on TV and over the months I had picked up a game system with a few games on it to play that I kept in my living room, I'm sure that would come in handy.

Although I had a feeling Izuku would be spending most of his time talking to me about All Might once I revealed the truth to him…

Wearing my gray jacket and some shorts, I headed to the door once he knocked and opened it, "Hey Izuku. Come on in."

Izuku was wearing a casual T-shirt and shorts, given that he lived only a few doors down from me, it's not like he needed to worry about dressing for travel. "Hey Akio!" He responded, heading inside with me.

"So, Izuku, I gotta get this out now cause it's admittedly going to be a pretty… Hard thing for you to believe. Go ahead and shut the door for me."

Curious, Deku Tree shut the door and walked with me into the living room, where I sat on the couch and sighed.

"W-What's wrong Akio?"

"Nothing, but… Well. Okay. You know my new quirk right? The one I showed you earlier."

"Yeah! It's really cool!"

"Well… I may not have been entirely honest on how I got that quirk. In fact, I wasn't really honest at all."

A surprised look spread across Izuku's face, "H-Huh? What do you mean? How did you get it if it wasn't a mutation?"

"You… Might want to sit down. You're probably not going to believe me, but this is one hundred percent the truth."

Izuku sat down on the couch next to me, looking at me with a mixture of curiosity and concern on his face, "Alright, so… How did you get it?"

"Okay so… Starting from the beginning. You remember when I got jumped in the air with All Might?"

"Yeah! You were trying to help me catch him to ask him my questions. Thanks for that, by the way."

I wave my hand, "No problem. Anyways, I talked to All Might, telling him about my dream, and. Well, let me go through all of it…"

So, I explained how that day went for me, from All Might being worried that my dreams weren't obtainable, to me inspiring him by trying to save him and Katsuki, to finally inheriting the quirk.

No sooner than I told him about inheriting the quirk did Izuku interrupt me, "Wait WHAT?! B-But that goes against everything we know about quirks! We've never been able to just give someone a quirk like a present that would cause us to have to rethink everything we know about quirks and-"

"Izu, you're kind of overthinking it…"

He stammered on his words, "Uh- Right, sorry. So… He gave you his quirk?!"

"Well, not right away. All that training you noticed me doing, even during school? That was getting my body ready for it. Five months in, I got the quirks, and I've been training with it ever since then."

"That… That…" I braced myself, not knowing how Izuku would react to this.

"That's AWESOME!"

My eyes widened a bit in surprise, my voice showing my disbelief, "Wha- You're not mad I lied or anything?"

"Why would I be?! _All Might_ chose to make you his successor! That means one day you'll be just as powerful as him! The number one hero!" Izuku put both his hands on my arm and kept a wide grin, "This is so cool! You've got to tell me more about what All Might is like! I only got to see him for a little bit!"

"You'll see for yourself, he's just as great in person. Remember, he's going to be teaching at UA."

"Yeah, of course! It's why I can't wait to start there, aside from wanting to become a hero of course."

"Right." I nod, before going to stand up, "Anyways Izu, this needs to stay a secret. Only a select few people know about All Might's problem, and only one person aside from you knows I'm in training to be his successor."

"Alright, I promise to keep it a secret! Although, I am curious. Why tell me?"

I smile, "Well, you're kind of the best friend I have right now." Discounting the fact he was my _only_ friend right now. "Besides, you'd have probably figured it out sooner or later anyways, better you know now. And, well… There is something I want your help with."

Blinking a few times, Izuku tilted his head, "Oh? What's that?"

"Well, you're all analytical and stuff, sure I'm smart but you've got this huge knowledge on heroes and especially on All Might. Since I have his powers, I was wondering if you could help me design the costume I'm supposed to submit to the school?"

His eyes lit up, "Totally! Got anything to write on?"

I scratch my cheek, "Yeah, let me got get it…." So I went to my room and returned with a notepad, where upon we began to work on what I roughly wanted and what Deku felt I was going to need.

I mostly recruited Deku because I hadn't the slightest clue what I wanted the costume to look like - I didn't want to take Deku's design either. The main things I wanted out of this outfit were reinforced gauntlets to prevent my hands and arms from breaking as easy, and the same kind of thing on my legs. In fact, given how weak my body was to One for All right now, this outfit might end up being some kind of armor…

It also needed to be at least relatively lightweight, while actual weight wouldn't matter once I had my quirk under control, because then I wouldn't even really NEED protection against my abilities or anything else, if All Might's durability was anything to judge by. For now, though, I knew I was going to need something strong.

Deku managed to talk me out of anything heavy or completely covering, instead it was almost somewhat traditional in terms of hero looks… Of course, there was no telling how it would come out when whichever company handles it finishes making it and sends it out.

Eventually, we had something of a preliminary design. I felt like I might end up changing it later, but for the moment it would work. At the end of all the designing, I had to admit, "Well. It looks good, Deku. I have to say, if being a hero doesn't pan out for you, you could always work in the support course!"

Izuku laughs, "Me, in the support course? I think that's a bit of a long shot!"

"Maybe you're right." I smirk, "Well, you should probably be getting home, your mom probably won't like you staying out too late like this."

"Oh, right! Oh, before I forget, want to come over for dinner?"

"Nah I'll pass this time. I think I'm going to do some cleaning and make something myself for once. Tell your mom I said hi though, and thanks for letting me borrow her detergent."

"Oh, right! No problem." He gets up, waving as he leaves and exits my house.

Once the door shut behind me, I sighed and slumped back against the couch.

I wasn't lying about having to clean up, but I really didn't want to.

Something so… Mundane hardly seemed heroic, even if I was no stranger to having to clean.

Maybe after all the working out I had done I was simply getting lazy.

I got up off the couch when I realized All Might would probably be disappointed in me if I just started getting lazy _now_ right around the time when I needed to be as active as possible.

I went to locate my cleaning supplies and began to clean around my house, figuring I might as well make sure the place was clean enough for any potential visitors I might have in the future not to think I was some kind of slob.

But honestly, I had to wonder just who would come over here? Asides from Izuku, I guess.

Eh, I'd make friends sooner or later.

…..

Towards the end of my cleaning session I decided to check for any sort of debris under my couch, but stumbled upon something a bit more interesting than dust bunnies or lost pieces of pepperoni.

I found a floor safe, with some kind of bio-lock on it.

It was the shape of a handprint, and I found myself curious. The note from Ms. Goddess didn't mention this floor safe...

I took the duster I had sitting on my coffee table and dusted off the bio-lock, before placing my hand on the biolock and waiting.

The digital interface on the lock lit up green, with words on it reading 'Identity verified: Akio Okumura. Disengaging locking mechanism.'

So it recognized me… That was a given since I was the only person living here.

It clicked unlocked and I pulled it open, the contents being on display for me to see.

Inside was a manilla folder that looked filled with some documents, and what looked to be a small black case.

I took both items out and laid them out on the table, I was sitting on my knees since the couch was pushed back for this, and I opened the manilla folder.

Inside was four pieces of paper, separated into two pairs by separate paper clips.

They each had large-print titles on them, the first set read 'IF WE GAVE YOU THIS, KEEP READING!' while the other set said 'IF YOU FOUND THIS, KEEP READING!'

I don't know who constituted 'we' in this case, so I set aside the first set and picked up the second one, unclipping it and reading the front paper.

"To my son,

Your mother didn't want us writing these but I convinced her to write these along with the other papers just in case things didn't go the way she hoped - And the way I predicted they would. It pains me to write this as well, but it's better that we leave these as some final words to you in the event that our job proves too dangerous for us.

Anyways, I'm assuming you're going to be sixteen in a few months by the time you read this. My foresight was never good at giving me exact dates, but you looked like it when I was looking through your future.

Sorry about that, by the way, I don't normally do things like that but I was curious about your future.

I'll keep this short, because I believe in you my son, you'll go farther than I ever could have hoped to go, and I'm not saying that because I have future vision, I'm saying that because I believe in you.

Tell All Might I wish him well.

Signed, your father."

So my father _was_ Night Eye in this new world I lived in… That was pretty cool. Also terrible because he's dead, which also had a number of other repercussions… I wonder if Mirio was still part of the Big Three?

I guess I'd find out in time.

I set it aside and looked at the next letter, figuring I'd at least figure out who my mother was supposed to be.

"Dear Akio,

Hey! Your dad wants us to write these incase something happened to us. Kinda unlikely in my opinion buuut if you're reading this that means either we got old enough to retire and share this with you or we actually _are_ dead.

If we are, Akio, I can only say a few things. I love you very much and always will, please stay strong. You're capable of so much in this world! I have some advice here for you to consider:

Marry someone you love! Don't do it for any reason but love! Not because they're 'rich' or 'beautiful' or whatever. Just be happy! And be yourself! I'm sure you'll meet plenty of beautiful girls, maybe you already have, and I bet at least one of them will fall head over heels for you, and you might follow!

Never give up! It's important that you keep going. After all, I'd have never won over your dad if I gave up, and I know I'd have quit on my path to becoming a Hero more than once if I was the kind of person to give up halfway through anything.

Finally, above all else, be kind! Sometimes a little kindness can go a long way in the world. Not every person who does bad is a villain, I trust you to be able to tell when a little kindness can solve a problem that violence couldn't.

That's about all I have to say. Good luck in life, Akio! We both love you.

Signed, your mom."

She seemed nice… It reminded me of my 'real' mother from the other world.

The one I left behind.

I sighed and put all the files back, not wanting to subject myself to reading the other ones, and closing the manilla folder, turning around and placing it back in the safe before turning back and pulling the case in front of me, opening it.

Inside was a bunch of projectiles.

I recognized these as the Super Density Stamp Seals Sir Nighteye used as his weapon. He must have left them for me… Maybe I'd add them to my costume somehow? Not as stampers… But I could do with some kind of disabling equipment on my person.

For now I closed the case, leaving it on the desk. I'd need to think of a way to incorporate these into my desired costume equipment…

I turned around and closed the safe, letting it lock, then I dragged the couch back over it.

Figuring I'd had enough revelations for one day, I opted to go start dinner and continue the rest of my night.

After all, I'd need to make the most of my time before I went to UA. There weren't many breaks in the hero course.

….

….

…

The rest of the break ended up being kind of a blur.

Two months, give or take a few days, of training, talking with Izuku, playing games, training, studying for UA, training… More training.

I did a lot of training in a futile effort to unlock Full Cowl before school started.

It didn't seem to be fated to happen just yet though.

Anytime I tried, I could tell I was drawing on too much power, it was like One for All just didn't want to completely enter my control yet. I wondered if my trigger to be able to gain proper control of it was something different to what Izuku had?

Probably, otherwise I'd have it by now, right? I've had the quirk a good seven months now.

As I went about my morning routine as quickly as I could, I pushed thoughts of my quirk out of my head.

Today was the big day! I was extremely excited, honestly. Getting to meet everyone in person! Not just the people I'd already seen.

I hoped things weren't _too_ different. I heard there were twenty-two students instead of twenty in this version of UA, which meant there would be one rogue element that I likely wouldn't know anything about, but that was fine.

I hadn't thought about it during the exam, but seeing Momo there indicated she didn't get in on recommendations this time. I had to wonder what changed there? Beyond her, I suppose I'd just need to observe the rest of the class to see how things were different.

Once I finished my morning routine, I headed outside, meeting Deku just as he was leaving as well. He waved at me, clearly just as excited as I was.

"Hey Akio! Ready for our first day?"

"You know it man. Let's get going!"

So together we headed off, happily chatting about what we expected out of our class. We were both nervous, because we hadn't ever really experienced something like this before, I mean, its a hero training school! In my case, even though I knew what was _supposed_ to happen in the show, not only would I be living through everything in real time, but they'd end up being different than I remember. So pile that on top of going to a legitimate hero academy, and you've got one nervous Akio.

Izuku was Izuku, he was nervous and likely overthinking a lot of things as we talked. I tried to keep him from going too overboard with it as we talked the best I could.

We made it to the train and continued on our path, before long we ended up walking into UA proper, and up the steps to find Class 1-A, where we would be meeting our soon-to-be peers.

"Oh man… What if they don't like me? I got a score completely in the middle at the exam! So many of these guys are going to be really strong…"

"Relax Izu, the only person I think has the capability of disliking you is Bakugo."

"He doesn't dislike me! He's just… Tough!"

"Uh huh, sure, and the sky is purple."

I smile with that last comment I make and push open the door, Izuku and I greeted with our first sight of class 1-A.

...It was about what I expected, at least on the surface level.

"Remove your legs from that desk immediately!" Tenya berated Bakugo, who only retorted with a quip about Tenya having a stick up his ass.

Izuku seemed frozen in shock at this, and I personally couldn't find it anymore amusing than it already was. So, smiling as I was, I decided I'd move away and try to avoid drawing attention to myself for the moment.

Just in time, too, no sooner than when I left range of Izuku did Tenya march up to him and begin talking to him about his bravery in saving Ochaco.

I was having fun already, at least up until I caught sight of the back of someone's head, someone who seemed very familiar to me…

Her hair was blonde and done up a bit different than I remembered - Rather than having two side-buns, it was one messy bun on the back of her head, held together by a blue bow with white polka dots.

She was talking energetically to Mina, who looked about as I expected. Pink, cute, and happy.

I couldn't focus on Mina right now though, my curiosity and suspicion got the better of me. I went up to her and tapped the girl facing away from me on the shoulder.

She quickly whirled around, a look of confusion slowly replaced with a look of sheer joy, "Oh! Oh! You're that guy that took out the zero-pointer! That was so cool! It reminded me so much of All Might! Do you know All Might?" She gasps, "Are you his student, or child?!"

I was taken massively by surprise. Yep, this was Himiko Toga. Except she looked _slightly_ less insane and sleep deprived and a bit more normal, but only just. There was still something unsettling about her, and some of her teeth were kind of eerily sharp. Her yellow eyes wide and face blushing, I could only try to act casual and wave my hand a bit dismissively, "No none of that, although he is a big inspiration."

Mina scratched her head, grinning a confused grin, "You took out one of those zero-pointers? That's super awesome if you did!"

I played it off with a forced casual laugh, really not being used to the attention, "Yep. If you don't believe me you can ask her." I jerk my thumb over to where Tsu was sitting, currently she was sitting like a frog in her seat, playing on her phone.

Pinky responded with a quick nod, "I'll go ask! You'd better not be lying, that'd be lame." Then, she went off to go talk to Tsuyu.

Oh great, that left me with-

"Himiko Toga! Call me Himiko!"

I felt incredibly uncomfortable talking to someone like her, even if she might somehow be different in this timeline. "Well… Nice to meet you Himiko. I'll talk to you later!" I wave, and leave. She didn't protest, but I noticed that she took her seat at the back of the class and just kind of… Stared at me the whole time.

Yeah, that wasn't at all creepy and worrying.

I tried to ignore it and make the most of the time before the bell and the arrival of the teacher by looking for someone else to talk to.

That answer came in the form of someone I bumped into on accident while looking around the class when she was facing away from me.

Turning around to face me was Momo Yaoyorozu, and I had to quickly apologize, "Oh, sorry about that. I wasn't really paying attention."

Momo responded with a small smile, crossing her arms under her chest, "I remember you. Didn't I tell you to pay more attention to your surroundings?"

Chuckling, I sheepishly rubbed behind my head, "I think so. So you ended up getting in as well? I expected as much from how you threw that spear. What's your quirk?" I knew the answer, obviously, but she didn't know that I knew and it'd probably be creepy if I just kind of talked like I knew exactly how it worked.

She seemed happy enough to educate me, putting up one finger in some kind of explanation stance, "I can create any non-living object using the lipids in my body as long as I know the atomic structure of said object. I'm also well-versed in fighting with staffs, but that's more of a personal accomplishment."

I nod a few times, "You're clearly very talented, and you must be very intelligent to make full use of that quirk. You seem like the kind of person who would be recommended here, yet I saw you in the exam. It strikes me as a little odd."

Momo's face dusted up in a blush at the compliment, but she kept her smile. It was honestly rather adorable, "Oh just… Some things happened, I was supposed to get a recommendation but it got withdrawn due to some… Complications with my parents."

That was odd. I didn't know anything about Momo's parents from the show, but I did know they were rich heroes of some kind. I doubted I'd get a full answer today, regardless, "Well hey. You're here now, eh? You're probably going to end up being a much better hero than someone like me."

"Don't doubt yourself." Momo chides, "I saw what you did. You took out that zero-pointer to save someone. You're already courageous, you just need to work on the whole… Limbs breaking thing. You won't be of much use to anyone if one punch leaves you with a broken arm."

I flex one of my arms playfully, "But what if One Punch is all I need?"

She kept her smile and adjusted her stance somewhat, "Then you'd still have a broken arm and be at a disadvantage if something happened or you needed to save someone."

I drop my arm and sigh, keeping my own smile, "Yeah you're right. Well, you're definitely smarter than me. I might know some things about material structure and hero work but I'm still struggling with things like history and science."

Momo hummed, "Do you need help?" She was acting cool, but I could tell she was trying to hold back some kind of elation, "I'd be more than willing to help you study."

"Mmh, probably. Let's see how this first week goes, then I'll let you know. Thanks for the offer!"

I could see some kind of brightness in her eyes as she said, "No problem!" Then, the bell rang and everyone had to quickly make their way to their assigned seats.

They were numbered in accordance to our number in the class. I was number twenty-one, which meant I sat in the back just in front of Himiko. Something that I was sure was going to make it hard to focus…

What else made it kind of hard to focus was that Momo was directly in front of me. When looking around the class, I noticed basically everyone kept their same numbers. Mineta sat in front of Momo, and I frowned a bit. A part of me was hoping he wouldn't have made it through… I don't particularly like that guy.

Aizawa came in and stated, "Once the bell rings you're expected to be in your seats." He looks around, "I'm glad to see at least _one_ class knows that."

Everyone looked at him in bewilderment, Eraserhead did not cut the finger of a teacher that one would expect to see here at UA given the way he dressed and his general behavior. This was why when he announced, "Hello I'm Shota Aizawa, your teacher."

Murmuring that was a mixture of disbelief and curiosity resonated throughout the class, which he seemed to ignore. "Alright let's get these over with." He revealed he was holding a large zipped up bag, "Get these on and head outside."

The others had no clue what was going to happen - I did, of course. Regardless of that, we all got up and one by one retrieved what would become our PE uniforms and headed to the changing rooms, swapping into the new outfits we'd been given.

This gave me a chance to notice something strange, as it was really as close as I'd been to any of the male students other than Izuku really.

Shoto didn't have a burn on his eye.

That somewhat unnerved me - His quirk should be the same, I wondered what that meant? I guess time would tell.

Beyond that, everyone of the guys seemed normal all things considered. Nothing out of the ordinary, aside from Todoroki. I still found myself wishing Mineta didn't exist as he was busy talking about how hot the girls were with Kaminari.

Izuku looked nervous, after he finished dressing but before we headed out he asked, "What do you think this is going to be?"

I finished pulling on the jacket of the PE uniform, "Probably some kind of evaluation or something." I kept it vague enough, trying to sound like I was just guessing, "Try not to worry about it too much. You're going to do fine."

"Well yeah! But what about you? You know how hard it is to control your quirk."

"Eh, yeah, but I have my ways."

It was then that Shoji, who was standing nearby and in the process of getting the sleeves off his uniform, stated, "You were the one who took out the zero-pointer, weren't you?" In his usual sort of deep but soft voice.

I looked to him, honestly the arms were unnerving but I just reminded myself that he was a good guy, "Eh- Yeah, that was me. Why?"

He looked at me, his expression was somewhat neutral, but one of his arms gave a thumbs up, "Impressive. Even more so that you risked yourself to save someone. That's very admirable."

Nervously, I let off a casual laugh. I really wasn't used to all the compliments I'd been getting on it, "Yeah well… I'm sure anyone in this room would have done the same thing if they could have. Except maybe Bakugo."

"Hey!" I heard him grunt out in angry indignation. Luckily for me, there was no time to argue as we all needed to pile out and meet Mr. Aizawa outside.

….

Everyone met Aizawa outside and we were led to what seemed to be a modified baseball field near one of the many gyms. We all stood in a loose group as Aizawa began to explain why we were here.

"We're here to evaluate each of your quirks."

There were some gasps, "Evaluating our quirks?" Ochaco asked, "What about Orientation? We're gonna miss it!"

"If you want to make it into the big leagues there's no time to stand on pointless ceremony."

I looked around a bit, I was standing near Momo and Himiko because they were the closest to my seat in class. I noticed Mineta was trying to stand behind Momo, but I lightly kicked him in his tiny leg and glared at him, causing him to sweat a bit and back off somewhere else.

"So assertive~" I heard Himiko whisper just loud enough for me to hear, and I frowned, shifting in place.

I kinda felt like for deflecting one person staring at someone in a lewd way I was just reminding someone else to stare at _me_ in that way. That was rather uncomfortable.

Aizawa was still explaining, "The standard education system does not allow use of quirks during physical evaluations. They're still trying to delude themselves with the idea that we're all born equal. That's just not the world we live in. I will run this class as I see fit, and I intend to see how you all perform when at your best. Using what you were born with." He looked to Bakugo, "Bakugo, you managed to get the most points on the entrance exam. What's the furthest you could throw a baseball in middle school?"

Bakugo responded after a moment of surprise at the question, "67 meters I think."

"Right. Try doing it with your quirk. Anything goes, just stay in that circle over there." He gestures to where Bakugo needs to go, and tossed him the ball as he was walking over to the circle.

Once he was there, he began to stretch out a bit. Aizawa commenting, "Hurry up. You're wasting our time."

"Alright man, you asked for it."

Bakugo reeled back and gave it his best pitch, adding an explosion as he was about to let go to the ball. The concentrated blast sent it flying into the air at an incredibly high speed and altitude.

As it was coming down to land, he looked to the rest of us and said, "The point of this test is to see what your truly capable of doing without holding anything back." He held up his phone and showed Bakugo's final range.

703 meters.

"Woah!" Kirishima exclaimed, "That's amazing!"

"703 meters, are you kidding me?" Denki muttered in an impressed tone.

"Oh, I wanna go next!" Mina waved her arms, "This looks like fun!"

"Yeah, we can use our quirks as much as we want!" Sero added, looking just as pumped up.

Himiko pouted, standing next to me, "Yeah, it's fun for them because they've got quirks that can send things flying." Seeming to display a measure of sanity for once, that was new, "Not so much for me, or anyone with a non-physical quirk."

I knew the risk but I didn't really want to just leave her pouting, call me a sucker for it. "Hey, you got in didn't you? That means you've got plenty of physical prowess on your own. Unlike me, who kind of relies on a quirk that can let me boost my strength and the like. You're arguably better than me."

A blush dusts across her face and she grins at me, two sharp canines on display, but it was a lot less unnerving than the last smile she gave me in class, "Thanks Akio! I don't think I'll compare to you though." Then she looked back to Aizawa as he seemed to be thinking about something.

I, meanwhile, was keeping a blush down. Himiko did look cute when she didn't look crazy…

Aizawa finally spoke, "So you think this is fun, huh? Alright. Let's raise the stakes. You have three years here to become heroes, you think this will all be fun and games? There are eight physical tests you'll each be partaking in today to gauge your potential. Whoever comes in last has none, and will be expelled." A creepy grin stretched across his face.

The good spirit disappeared as shocked murmurs spread across the group.

Ochaco was the one to make the general feeling of the class known, "Expel one of us? You can't do that! I mean we just got here! Even if it wasn't the first day of school, that's unfair!"

"Oh, and you think natural disasters are? Or power-hungry villains? The world is full of unfairness. It's the job of a pro hero to combat that unfairness. If you want to be a pro you're going to have to push yourself to the brink. For the next three years UA will throw one terrible hardship at you after another! So go beyond. Plus Ultra style." Keeping his grin, he beckoned with his finger, "Show me it's no mistake that you're here."

I sigh and roll my shoulders, all that running with All Might would come in handy. Even if I couldn't completely control my quirk yet, my own physical prowess should get me through this.

...

The first test went normally for everyone in the original class, except for Izuku naturally, who used his fire breath to give him something of a backwards boost of force towards the end of his run to speed himself up. Anyways, as both Himiko and I were numbered last, we would go last.

We lined up at the start and at the sign we both ran.

I honestly didn't know what to expect from Himiko, so I was honestly surprised when she bolted ahead of me. She wasn't as fast as Tenya, but she was clearly faster than me.

I pushed myself as fast as I could and still only barely trailed her!

"4.3 Seconds!" the tracking robot declared for Himiko, causing her to jump for joy in place.

I cleared soon after, the robot declaring, "5.1 seconds!"

Panting a bit, I smiled and gave a thumbs up to Himiko when she looked at me, "See what I mean? You've got your own properties."

My smile faltered a bit with how wide the grin she gave me was, the look in her eyes was just unsettling enough for me to go back to feeling uncomfortable. I didn't know if I'd ever get used to this version of Toga.

Luckily that's where that ended and we were off to the second test.

…

The second test was a bit easier for me - Nearly a year of channeling my strength into individual body parts allowed me to channel it into my hands and lightly grip onto the thing without breaking my fingers.

Even with how light I was gripping it, I ended up with a grip strength of 403 pounds. Which honestly made me pretty happy. No last place for me!

….

The rest of the early tests went about as you'd expect, and it wasn't until we got to the ball throw right in the middle, with three after it that anything interesting happened for me.

I had been expecting _something_ to happen during the baseball throw so it's not like it was a big of a surprise when my turn came and Aizawa erased my quirk before I could complete my throw.

"Your not used to your quirk." Aizawa speaks, "You're not ready. What were you planning on doing? Breaking your body and leaving yourself a liability to everyone?" He even dragged me to him with his carbon fiber scarf.

I was more annoyed than spooked, I had to admit, because I knew what I was going to do.

Aizawa kept speaking, "You had one exemplary score so far but it's clear you were on eggshells. You can't expect to play around like that when it comes to a serious situation."

When I got an opening to speak, I did so with a frown, "Mr. Aizawa, I mean no disrespect, but if you could please let me throw my ball, I'll show you I wasn't planning on breaking my arm."

He quirked an eyebrow and let me go, and I walked back, grabbing the ball.

Reeling back, I waited until the last second to charge my finger with the power of One for All, it was damaged to be sure, but I could still move it as the ball shot out of my hand and flew across the field.

Once it landed, Aizawa showed the distance to the rest of the class.

"Woah, 705 meters!" I heard Sero comment, "That's insane!"

Bakugo looked shocked and upset, but he didn't charge at me like he did at Deku in the show. My best guess for that was because he didn't view me in the same light he viewed Deku - I was just sort of a side character in his mind. Too bad for him, huh?

I closed my fist and smiled, "See, Mr. Aizawa? I had a plan." Then, I walked back to the others.

I grinned as people looked at me and shrugged off some of the comments about my quirk, although Ochaco did ask, "Hey are you alright? Your finger looks really screwed up!"

"I'm sure I'll be fine. I can visit the nurse, remember?"

She nodded a few times, "Well alright, still that looks pretty bad. I think I see a bit of blood."

Himiko entered the conversation with that, "Oh blood? I can take care of that!" The suggestion was innocent enough, but I knew her.

"That's fine." I reply, just wiping it off on my pants leg, "Nothing to worry about, see?" I try to smile despite the disappointed look on her face.

Soon afterwards, we continued the rest of the tests at Aizawa's direction.

…

At the end of it all we gathered back on that first field and Aizawa showed us the scores all at once, "I'm not going to go over each score individually so here's all of them. Take a look."

I wasn't in the top, but I also wasn't at the bottom. Purely in the middle. Bakugo was, unfortunately, at the top along with Shoto.

The person who was at the bottom?

...Himiko.

She was clearly shocked, but I kind of expected this. Her best test was the sprint, the rest of them were… Not her ideal places to shine.

"...By the way I was lying about expelling one of you. Call it extra incentive."

Shock resonated through everyone, and relief through Toga.

"What, he was lying? That's low-down!" I heard Kirishima exclaim.

"It really is a nasty immoral trick." Tenya notes, rubbing his chin.

"Anyways, your syllabi will be on your desks when you get back to class. That's it for today. Just grab them and head out, I'll see you all tomorrow."

As Aizawa left, we all relaxed and began to walk back. Himiko was strangely quiet.

Call me crazy for trying to get to the bottom of a crazy girl's discontent, but I was weak to sad eyes. "Hey, Himiko. Don't beat yourself up too much, alright? That test was really weighed against people who don't have physical quirks."

Himiko nods, sighing, "I know, I know. It just reminds me that it's going to be really hard if I ever want to be like All Might. He's such a big inspiration! I'll need to work extra hard if I'm ever going to be him!"

"You mean be like him, right?"

"Oh- R-Right."

Her phrasing made me suspicious, even more so than I was before. I still didn't trust this version of Toga, no matter how much more 'normal' she was compared to how she used to be.

…

After changing back into my normal uniform and a quick trip to Recovery Girl, I was soon walking towards the exit to UA and towards the train station with Izuku, who seemed more relieved than even I was that the first day was over.

"Man, that was tough! I didn't expect the first day to be so rough on us."

"Eh, yeah, well we're heroes in training now Izu. I guess we're going to have to get used to life being a bit tougher."

"Speaking of, how's your finger?"

"Oh, good. Recovery Girl mostly fixed it, it should be fully healed by tonight. Left me pretty tired though, I have to admit."

My words were punctuated with a heavy yawn, just as Tenya came up to us.

"Hello you two!" The overly serious man joined us, "I have to admit I found Mr. Aizawa's trickery rather immoral and deeply deceptive for a teacher. I can't believe they would pull something like that!"

Izuku spoke up, "I couldn't either, but I guess that's just something we're gonna have to deal with from now on, huh..?"

"You raise a good point, Midoriya!"

"Y-You can call me Izuku, really it's fine."

"Very well! Then I am Tenya to you."

I wave my hand as they talk, "And you can call me Akio. No big deal to me."

"Hey guys, wait up!"

"Yeah, wait for me too!"

I looked back and noticed both Ochaco and Himiko jogging towards us, gripping their bags. It was a bit odd seeing the two of them run side by side to each other, given how I knew they behaved in the show to each other…

Yeah, this was officially entering surreal territory.

"You guys heading to the train station, mind if we come?" Uraraka smiled as she waited for her answer.

"Not at all!" Tenya answered for us, thankfully it was an answer I was… At least 50% okay with.

"By the way I'm Ochaco Uraraka!"

"And I'm Himiko Toga!"

Ochaco scratches her cheek, "You're Tenya Iida, I know that, and you're Akio Okumura… And you're Deku right? Deku Midoriya?"

Deku Tree waved his hands rapidly, "Huh- N-No!"

Ochaco hummed questioningly, "I thought that was your name? I heard Bakugo say it a few times."

"Well that's just something he likes to call me, see my real name is Izuku… That's really just something he calls me to insult me."

"Huh? That's weird! Besides I like Deku I think it sounds kind of cute."

"Deku it is!"

Tenya was shocked, "Wha- Didn't you just say that the name was meant to insult you?!"

Deku was busy being flustered, turning away and covering his mouth, muttering something about a paradigm shift.

Tenya and Uraraka were confused, while I just laughed, "Can't handle the cute girl giving you a nickname huh?"

Deku and Ochaco both flushed about as red as they could and started sputtering at me while I just grinned.

That is, until Himiko giggled and put a hand on my arm with that grin of hers, "You're so funny, Aki~"

Aki?!

I could feel my face heating up as I rubbed the back of my head, looking away, "A-Ah jeez…"

This sudden 'paradigm shift' caused the others to laugh, before we all started walking towards the station together.

As we headed towards the station, chatting to each other as we went, my mind turned to Momo and Tsu.

I hadn't really gotten to talk to Tsu today, and Momo seemed normal despite the not being recommended thing being a bit unusual. The rest of class 1-A seemed normal as well, although it was just surface level, and I remembered Shoto's lack of a burn wound being something for me to try and learn more about sometime.

Then there was Himiko, who I honestly didn't know what to think about. She made me pretty uncomfortable and her motives were still questionable to me, despite her… Overt nature.

I guess it was just an internal bias but it was still one I wasn't going to readily ignore.

…

The train ride was peaceful. Uraraka got off first, followed by Tenya. That just left myself, Izuku, and Himiko.

"So Himiko, what's your quirk?" Izuku asked curiously, we were all three sitting together on the train, which was surprisingly rather empty at the moment.

Himiko shifted uncomfortably, "It's not very heroic… Not like Akio's, or yours for that matter." She bites her lip, clearly pondering on if to tell us her quirk or not.

Izuku continued, "It can't be that bad! Besides, the quirk doesn't make the person, it's how you use it!"

That seemed to work, as she sighed, "Well… I can ingest people's blood to look and sound exactly like them."

Izuku blinked a few times, before smiling, "Wow! That's pretty cool! I mean, if you get the blood of some really bad dude you can disguise yourself as them and get a bunch of information to help bring them and their friends down!"

Himiko blinks in surprise, before smiling, "Y-Yeah, I guess you're right. It's not all that bad, is it?"

"It's like he said." I add, "It's not what the quirk is, it's how you use it."

With that, the train stopped at where Izuku and I had to get up, and it surprised me when Himiko got up as well.

I tilted my head, "Himiko, you live around here?"

"You could say that!"

"How come we never saw you on the train?" Izuku wonders, rightfully so.

"Cause I usually take the train that comes a bit earlier than this one, same for in the morning!"

That… Actually made sense.

Izuku and I shared a look before shrugging and the three of us got off together.

We left the station together, Himiko kicking her feet out as we walked in an animated and somewhat childish walk-cycle.

I decided to be the one to ask, "So… Himiko, where do you live exactly?"

"Down the road! Past some apartments!"

"Oh hey!" Izuku starts, "We live in those! You can walk with us all the way back then."

Oh boy. As if my suspicion towards this girl couldn't get any stronger.

Maybe it was unjustified? I didn't know. I almost wanted to use Foresight on her, but I knew my eyes would give away that I was using it unless I had on glasses or covered them in some way.

Oh well, we eventually got to our apartment complex and waved goodbye to Toga, the two of us walking up the stairwell towards the line of doors that contained our apartments.

"So, today was pretty tough right?" Izuku asks, likely just to fill the silence until we got to his place, which was closer to this path we were taking than the other way.

"Yeah, but I imagine tomorrow is going to be even tougher. We're just going to have to get used to intense training from now on, I suppose. It's fun at least."

"Yeah! Really cool as well, we didn't get to see All Might today, which kind of sucks, but we're bound to see him tomorrow!"

"I think we will, tomorrow's our first real day of school after all."

Izuku nods in agreement, before we reach his house and he waves goodbye, "Gotta tell my mom how today went! Seeya!"

I waved him bye and he went inside, shutting the door behind him. Humming, I kept walking towards my apartment.

I felt… Off. Like someone was watching me.

I looked towards the path that we took to get to the apartments, at the fencing, but I didn't see anything. The feeling was gone.

Odd… I'd make sure I locked the door tonight. Whatever it was, I didn't want to take any chance, even if I could destroy just about anyone who tried to do a home invasion without a second thought.

Well, it'd need a second thought because I'd probably break my arms if I used my quirk and if I killed them, I don't know how that would hold up in court.

Heading inside, I shut the door behind me and locked it before heading to my kitchen to make myself dinner.

As I turned on the stove and prepared to make food, I thought about how tomorrow was the day of the day of the Battle Trial, and the day I'd get to see my suit for the first time.

It had been difficult adding the second quirk to my quirk registration, but upon proving to the right paper pusher that I did, in fact, have two quirks, they registered it and gave me my quirk forms.

I had finalized the rough design of the suit that I wanted the best I could and sent it in three weeks ago. I was no artist, but I had faith the company would be able to make something that I'd like.

After I finished making and eating dinner, I went and took a shower and changed into some casual clothes.

I wanted to go for a walk to the beach - I had already exercised plenty today, I think, but I still wanted to try and control my Quirk just a little bit better and the beach was always a good place to train with it away from civilians that might get hurt.

I wore my usual outfit - A gray jacket, a pair of jean-shorts, and a grey T-shirt underneath it.

Heading out and locking the door behind me, I went off and started my stroll towards the beach, enjoying the peaceful afternoon.

I occasionally got the feeling I was being watched again, but it never amounted to anything as the feeling always went away rather quickly.

Maybe I was just being paranoid.

Either way, when I got to the beach the sun was already getting ready to set, but I didn't mind. The beach was rather peaceful,

As I reached the stairwell leading to the beachfront proper, I took off my jacket and hung it up on the railing before walking down to the shoreline to start training.

I decided to keep it light today and just started running along the shoreline, I knew I couldn't risk being too sore as tomorrow was going to require me to be at 100%.

As I was running, I noticed someone swimming in the water. Well, it was more like they were occasionally coming up for air and then diving back down into the ocean.

I stopped and called when I next had the chance, and called "Hey! Who's swimming?" Curiously.

Out of the water came… Tsuyu. Wearing a one-piece swimsuit, "Oh hey Akio, I didn't know you came here."

"In all fairness, I didn't know you came here." I put my hands in my jean pockets, "What brought you to this place?"

"I heard this beach that used to be covered in trash got cleaned up and I figured it'd be a good place to train my swimming technique, Ribbit." She responds, somehow her hair still in its rather strange style despite being soaking wet.

Smiling to myself, I was glad to be able to contribute more to people even if it was something this… Small. "You heard right, it was a mess about a year ago."

"Well it's really nice now." She responds, tapping her finger on her lips, "So what're you doing here?"

"Well, I live a short jog away from here, and I've been coming down here to train for a while. It's just a nice place to get your workout in, you know?"

"I guess we came for the same reason, Ribbit. Can I join you?"

I was a bit surprised by the question but nodded, "Sure. I was just going for a bit of a run before I did the rest of my workout, keeping it light to avoid straining myself. Never know what's going to happen at school tomorrow."

"That's one way to look at it." The frog-girl responded, "Let's go!"

So we started running. Well, I ran, Tsu hopped along with me, keeping pace.

"So," I asked during our run, "What made you want to be a hero?"

"Big question, Ribbit." She notes neutrally, "I guess to make a better future for myself and my family. And to help people along the way if I can."

I knew the answer but decided to ask anyways, "Got a lot of family?'

"Two siblings that I look after, I'm basically their mom because our parents are always off on business."

"Wow, and you still find time to train and go to school? That's really impressive Tsu."

I could kind of tell Tsu was happy at the praise through the tone of her voice, "Thank you, I don't think it's that big of a deal. Sometimes I think taking care of them is part of what helped me get motivated enough to come to UA in the first place. What about you, Ribbit? Why do you want to be a hero?"

The question kind of caught me off guard because I hadn't really… Thought of that. I just did because I knew that was what I wanted to do, and it's what I had to do as All Might's successor. I was able to think of an answer though, "To help keep the world safe. All Might isn't going to be there forever, as much as we wish he would be, and people are going to need new heroes to save the day. I'm hoping to be one of the ones that helps bring peace to people's lives when they need it most."

"That's really noble, Ribbit!" Tsu noted, "You're really just in it to keep people safe?"

"Yeah, I mean I have more money than I need, I have a strong quirk and a desire to help people. I don't see why I wouldn't, honestly."

"Some people would use that as a means to become a villain." She pointed out rather cynically.

"Yeah well, I'm not some people." I respond, smiling as we stopped our run, "I'm Akio."

"You are." She responds.

I spotted a frozen yogurt vendor setting up in the more populated part of the beach and pointed to it, "Want some? On me."

Tilting her head, Tsu asks, "Are you sure?"

"Sure, it's what friends do right?"

I could tell Tsu was actually surprised by my words, "Friends? We only just met very recently."

"Yeah well. I can tell you're a good person. Besides, everyone needs friends, right?"'

She stared at me wide eyed for a minute before smiling the most adorable smile I'd seen all day, "Yeah, ribbit!"

"Ribbit." I respond with a thumbs up and a grin after taking a second to reorient myself and push down a blush, before we headed over and got our frozen yogurt.

Once we got it, we sat down on the sand as people milled about. It wasn't that many people, just some civilians watching the sunset or enjoying the cool water on an otherwise warm day.

"You know, when I first started working on this beach, I had no idea how many people were going to show up once it was all clean." I note idly, I wasn't intending to brag about it or anything, I was just making conversation as we sat and ate.

"You cleaned this place, ribbit?" Tsu asks, "I thought the city did it, or some hero."

"Nah it was me. It was part of my… Training, to get a better hold on my quirk and to get in the perfect shape for UA."

Tsu looked at me, plastic spoon in her mouth as she ate her frozen yogurt. She took it out again and stated, "Wow. That's impressive."

"I'm glad you think so, and hey. What do you mean some hero? Aren't I some hero?" I put a joking tone in my voice to let her know I wasn't actually offended.

"Some people might think it's lame to consider someone who cleaned up garbage to be a hero, but I think you are. You made this place available to swim in again, ribbit."

"I just wanted to make people have happy memories here, you know?" I respond after I eat a scoop of frozen yogurt. "Nobody is going to have any memorable dates or family nights or… Training sessions in a dirty beach filled with old washing machines and tires. Sure, I was brought here to train, but I made it my mission to clean up this whole place."

"Wow. You really are a hero." Tsu notes, a soft genuine lilt to her froggy voice.

I felt a blush unwillingly crawl up my face at the comment, "Hey, you're a hero too." I tap her arm with my plastic spoon, "Taking care of your siblings, raising them when your parents can't and all of that? You're a hero to them."

Tsu flushed red as well, "R-Ribbit… Thank you."

Smiling, I dug my spoon back into my frozen yogurt, "Don't thank me, it's just the truth after all."

She fell silent at that, looking at her frozen yogurt before starting to silently eat it again.

I did the same until I saw the sun starting to sink before the horizon, the water glimmering brilliantly as the sky changed to shades of red and orange, "Beautiful, isn't it?" I ask softly.

"Ribbit." Tsu responds, nodding her head.

We sat in silence and enjoyed the sunset as we finished our cups. Most people, including the frozen yogurt vendor, had started to leave at this point.

"Wanna start walking back to our stuff? I know you didn't come here only in a swimsuit."

She starts to stand up, "I wore some clothes over it, I left my bag back at the parking lot."

"Perfect." I go to stand as well, "Let's go throw these away then get going."

And so we did, finding a recycling bin to toss the garbage and then starting a much more relaxed walk back to the parking lot where we started.

"We didn't really do that much exercising, ribbit." Tsu notes.

Chuckling, I respond, "Yeah you're right. Well, considering what we did earlier today I think it can be excused."

"Agreed."

We soon arrived back at the parking lot, the sun well and truly set and the moon starting to take its place in the sky.

"I need to catch the next train back home." Tsu says as she puts on some loose clothing over her swimsuit once she'd dried it off, "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"See you there." I respond, "Good seeing you today. No giant robots to nearly kill us this time, eh?"

"Ribbit." She responds with a thumbs up, before starting off with her bag on her back towards the train station.

Alone again, I turn and head back towards home, enjoying an easy stroll the rest of the way there.

Today was a good day, threat of expulsion notwithstanding. Meeting new people, making new friends, and starting on the road to becoming a proper hero.

And to think we were just getting started.

Once I was home again, I went to wash my hair and change my clothes, before getting to my room and lying in bed.

Looking up at the ceiling for a moment before I closed my eyes, I couldn't help but feel slightly optimistic for whatever tomorrow held, and hell, what the rest of the year would hold.

Days like these, I feel, were part of what made things in this world worth protecting.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hey guys! I'm so happy with the reception this story has been getting lately. Some of you have been asking about what the main ship of this story will be, and I'm honestly unsure myself. As this chapter demonstrated, it can go in many directions. That's where you come in! On my profile will be a poll, you can choose which girl out of Momo, Tsu, and Himiko should be the main ship. Or choose 'other' and PM me your personal preference! I hope to continue to provide an entertaining story for you guys, have a nice day!


	4. Battle Trials & Tribulations!

_BEEP BEEP BEEP_

I smacked the top of my alarm clock and crawled out of bed, lazily flopping onto the ground and staring at the ceiling.

It was something of a herculean effort to summon the energy to get up after how rough yesterday was.

It's not that I didn't want to go to UA, I did. Hell, I was looking forward to today's hero training.

It was all the stuff that came _before_ the hero course in the afternoon I wasn't looking forward to.

Regular classes.

Ugh…

When would I need math or cultural studies when I was busy punching villains in the face, or cleaning up the streets?

Oh well. If all the pro heroes who went to UA had to do it, then I shouldn't be complaining.

Getting off the floor, I went to my bathroom and showered, before drying off and getting my school uniform on. Once I had it on, I grabbed my phone, wallet, and keys before heading out of my house and locking the door behind me.

Izuku was waiting for me at the bottom of the steps and we greeted each other before walking to the bus. "Ready for our first real day?" I asked, stifling a yawn.

"Yep!" Izuku responds, in markedly higher spirits this morning than I, "I'm super excited for what the hero course will have to teach us!"

"Man… How are you so chipper right now? It's early."

"I had two cups of coffee before I left home!"

"Of course you did."

Izuku laughed a little bit before we continued on our path, midway towards the station we were joined by Himiko, also dressed and ready for school.

"Hey, you two! Are ya ready?"

Himiko, as usual, was hanging out just a little too close to me. I kind of wanted to get her away, but I figured that'd be rude.

"Yep!" Izuku responds with his trademark smile.

"I will be once we get through the morning. Remember we have to cross the hurdle of standard education classes before we can get back to our hero training."

Himiko sighed heavily, sharing my distaste for it, while Izuku remained optimistic, "It won't be that bad, I'm sure!"

….

"Ughhh."

Izuku groaned as he joined Himiko, Momo, Uraraka, Tenya, and myself at the lunch table.

"I was wrooonggg." The green haired wonder complains, "I didn't know a class taught by Present Mic could be so boring."

That elicited a laugh from Uraraka and me, Momo and Tenya didn't seem to agree though.

"Midoriya, surely it's not that bad! English may be a difficult language but it's an essential part of modern life! Of the fabric of our world!" Tenya, as usual, seemed ready with an impassioned speech for everything.

I swear he'd give an impassioned defense on the necessity of washing your hair twice if someone brought it up.

Momo picked up, "It's really not that hard once you get down to it."

"Easy for you to say." I respond, wielding a piece of sushi in my chopsticks and pointing it at her lazily, the arm propped up against the table, "You're some kind of super-genius. It's like you're Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking's long-lost brainchild or something."

"I thought you weren't good at history, Okumura?" Tenya ponders, "Those are some old names to be bringing up."

Oh right. Hawking died like two-hundred years ago and Einstein died like 300 years ago, or something like that. "I'm good at a… Very specific period of history. It's all the more recent stuff I don't know anything about."

"Interesting." Momo notes, raising an eyebrow, "Is it some kind of fascination or something with pre-quirk society?"

"Uhm… You could call it that." I laugh nervously, "I watched a lot of documentaries on that stuff when I was younger, helped pass the time. Besides," I decided to throw in something my old-world dad once told me, "My dad always told me that if I'm going to sit around watching television I might as well be getting smarter while doing it."

"A smart man." The creation girl smiles, "He must be proud of you."

"I like to think he'd be." I wasn't able to keep a hint of melancholy out of my voice.

"I don't like that past tense…" Uraraka chimes in, "Is your dad…?"

"Yeah, unfortunately. My mom, too." I know Izuku knew, but the others looked at me with sympathetic eyes, even Himiko, who honestly looked kind of out of place with a look like that.

"Don't worry too much." I wave my hand casually at the looks, "They were heroes and they died heroes, and I've got plenty of money because of them."

"Who was your dad, Aki?" Himiko participates finally, after spending the past few minutes sitting next to me occasionally stealing glances in my direction.

I tried to ignore her nickname for me, "You guys might know him by his hero name. He was Sir Nighteye."

There were responses of recognition from almost the entire table, especially Himiko, who was the first to respond.

"I remember him! Wasn't he All Might's sidekick for a while?"

"Yeah, I think so. That was before I was born, though."

Izuku blinks, "Woah! Yeah, I forgot about that! Does that make All Might like your godfather or something?"

Uraraka giggles while throwing a look at Izuku. Man, it was so obvious how much she was already into him. Izuku was one lucky guy to snag a girl like that so soon, even if he was a bit too dense to notice when someone had feelings for him.

Why did I feel that was ironic of me to say?

Oh well. "I guess so." I respond with a shrug, "Maybe I'll ask him if I get a chance."

Come to think of it, if my father was Sir Nighteye, did All Might know I was the descendent of his sidekick and just not make note of that when he chose me? He must know, the quirk that me and the dad this world gave me had were too similar to each other to just be a coincidence.

I'd need to ask him.

I decided to change the subject before they ended up asking questions I wasn't able to answer, "Sooo… Chemistry sucks, right?"

Everyone looked kind of taken aback at the change of subject, but Himiko seemed happy to oblige me, filling me with a tiny bit of gratitude when she groaned loudly, "Yeah it does! I thought I was done with all that boring stuff when middle school ended. I don't want to learn that stuff! I just want to learn to be a hero!"

Perhaps a bit over-dramatically, she bows her head and takes a melancholic bite out of her bowl of white rice.

"Is it really that hard for you two?" Momo seemed surprised, "Chemistry is an incredibly simple subject when you get down to it."

Himiko humphs, "Easy for you to say, Ms. Atomic Structure! You live and breath stuff like that."

Tenya chimes in, "I hate to agree with such a crass statement but she is right Momo. Your quirk relies on you having an intimate knowledge of all things chemical and compositional! It would be like if Akio was surprised we couldn't deadlift seven-hundred pounds, or Deku being surprised we can't start a fire as quickly as he can."

Momo sighs, "Forgive me, I sometimes forget that." She honestly looked kind of crestfallen over getting caught up in herself. It made me want to comfort her.

"Hey, don't worry about it! I mean hey, you're really smart, right? Maybe you can help the two of us study."

Momo positively lit up at that idea, and I remembered that she was supposed to REALLY enjoy the prospect of spending time with people and studying, "You think so? I mean we could! I could let my family know to expect people and make sure the gate is unlocked and I have enough tea for you guys and everything!"

With her big dark eyes positively shining with delight and the way she was talking a mile a minute, acting so excited over the prospect, I found myself blushing. She was unbelievably cute, I had to admit. This school was filled with really cute girls… It's almost like it was a requirement to be at least sort of attractive to be a heroine.

Suddenly I realized I was just kind of staring at her while she had asked a question and was looking expectantly, I blinked, "Uh- Sorry, what?"

Himiko looked at me, raising an eyebrow. Thank god she didn't catch on to what I was doing.

"I asked what kind of tea you guys liked?"

Himiko was the first to respond, "I really like Ginseng! I have it whenever I can."

Momo looked to me, "And you, Akio?"

"I uh…" I wracked my brain, trying to think of an answer. It occurred to me that the entire time I've been living in this place, the only time I drank tea was at Izuku's house because his mom fixed it for me. The rest of the time, I drank coffee or soda.

An unhealthy habit that seems to have followed me from one world and into this one.

"I don't really know… The only time I've had tea was at Midoriya's."

Gasps resonated across the table, "Wait, really?!" Uraraka asks in surprise, "What do you usually drink?"

Laughing nervously, I scratch my cheek, "Coffee… A-And water! Sometimes soda."

I downplayed just how much of the sugary drink I really had, but I didn't want to look bad in front of my friends!

"That's… Remarkable!" Tenya exclaims with an exaggerated hand motion, "To have lived here your whole life and never once tasted the most popular type of drink! It's statistically unlikely!"

Well, a lot of things about my life were statistically unlikely, I guess it fits.

Momo clapped her hands together, "Well! I guess I'll just have to make you some of my favorite tea and see if you like it! And if not, well, I can make a bunch of different kinds of tea!"

That was… Incredibly nice of her. "You don't have to, Momo, I'll be happy with whatever you serve."

"I insist! Besides, it won't be any trouble."

Smiling, I nod, "Well, okay then. If you insist."

Shortly afterward the bell rang and ended our lunch period. It was a good thing we all mostly finished eating, I don't think going into the Hero Course with an empty stomach would do very good for us.

We made our way up the stairs and towards where Class 1-A was located, our hero course.

Classes were a bit different in UA in that we actually _did_ move around to different classes as we went as opposed to the teachers coming to us.

I guess that made sense in some way. Given how different everything _else_ at UA was.

Once we were all seated, I swept my gaze across the room while we waited for our teacher to arrive.

I knew it was going to be All Might but some of the other students were skeptical that it would be the man himself. Boy, were they in for a surprise.

Everyone looked about as normal as they did yesterday. Todoroki's lack of an eye burn was still somewhat unsettling to me, but beyond him, everyone at least physically looked normal. Even Hagakure, as normal as she could look at what basically amounted to floating clothes.

The only person I couldn't see was Himiko, and that was because she was sitting directly behind me. I didn't want to look back at her on the off-chance she was looking at me - But it didn't feel like she was, maybe she was waiting on All Might?

"I AM HERE! ENTERING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A HERO!"

Right on queue.

The class murmured excitedly to each other while I heard Himiko actually _squeal_ under breath in excitement.

"Oh my gosh! It's All Might! Akio! It's All Might!" She put her hands on my shoulders and shook me lightly, despite the fact that I wasn't facing her.

"I see him!" I mutter back, not able to keep myself from laughing a bit, "Calm down! He's going to speak!"

That seemed to work, she let go and looked to the front of the room.

This was the most attentive I'd ever seen her. In all the morning classes she'd keep poking me in the back asking me to entertain her because she was bored.

I guess that was the magic of having your idol in the room with you, from where I could see him, Izuku shared the same look.

All Might paraded in front of the podium, declaring, "Welcome to Basic Heroics! Think of this as your Hero 101 course. Where you'll go over the basics of everything you need to know in order to become a HERO!" He dramatically flares his arms out, "Today we're going to be focusing on one of the most important aspects of heroing!" Fishing out an index card, he displays it to everyone.

"Combat training!" Bakugo seemed delighted at the prospect, unsurprisingly.

"And what would a hero be without…" All Might presses a button as grandly as he could, "Costumes! The company that you sent your forms and design choices into has made specially tailored costumes for each and every one of you! Go on, take them!"

We all stood up and took the cases that contained our hero outfits, "Now get yourselves suited up and meet me at training ground Beta!"

Himiko was bouncing on her feet as she looked at me, holding her case, "I can't wait to see how you look in your costume, Aki!"

Laughing nervously, I muster up a smile, "Same to you." Then I join the others in heading to our changing rooms.

….

After changing, people began to make their way to the training ground in haphazard groups of who changed the fastest.

Midoriya and I were the last ones out, walking together as everyone disappeared into the dark tunnel that led into the training ground.

Izuku's costume was remarkably different from what it was in the show, but I guess that was because he had a completely different quirk now.

His suit was colored green and was made out of some kind of fire-retardant material. It covered him from head to toe like the outfit a fireman would wear, it had stripes of gold going down the torso and the boots had some kind of metal on the soles. On his face was something of a gas mask like a firefighter would wear. Except instead of completely obscuring his face, it had a glass visor over his eyes, and the mouth of the mask didn't have a filter. Deku explained this was because the mask was outfitted to intensify his fire when he channeled it through, so he wouldn't need to overdo himself too quickly by blowing extremely strong fire bursts.

He was like some kind of anti-firefighter and I thought that was pretty cool.

Once we cleared the tunnel, we joined the group of other students waiting for All Might to begin talking as he looked us over, "From this point on… You are all heroes in training!"

Uraraka started to talk to Izuku again, and it was clear to me that he was having a hard time coping with the fact that her outfit was so skin tight and form-fitting. Not that I could blame him, it was honestly even more distracting in real life.

While I was smiling at their back and forth, a voice called to me just out of sight, "Oh my god! Aki your costume looks just like one of All Might's old costumes! That's so cool!"

I whirled around and went to respond, "Tha-" Only to have my voice caught in my throat at the sight I was beholding.

Himiko was wearing a skintight multicolored suit that hugged her body in every possible way. It was colored in a mixture of purple, blue, and yellow. The jumpsuit was accompanied with curl-toed shoes just like a jester would wear, and she wore gloves with white frills on the ends of them. On her head was a Fool's Hat with two 'horns' on the top and one long one directly behind the horns mimicking a tail. She had frills circling her entire neck, I think that kind of neckwear was called a 'Ruff' but I couldn't remember exactly.

In her hand was a scepter with a purple rod and a steel top that looked like it had some kind of button on the top.

"H-Himiko! Your outfit, it's so…"

"Great, right?! But not as great as yours!"

I looked over my outfit again, giving it a once over.

A navy blue spandex suit with teal colored trimmings draped itself all across my body, I based its appearance off of the way All Might's costume looked when he was young. I had steel boots that covered both my feet and my lower knees made of a lightweight but durable material, and full gauntlets made of a similar material. The company made them to spec, so I could better withstand the power of One for All and had less of a risk of breaking my arms. I probably shouldn't be using it at full power anyways, but this would at least keep the problem from getting as bad as Izuku's did. I also had a belt clipped on my waist, it had several small pouches on it. After seeing how useful utility belts were in comic books, I knew I had to have one for myself. I didn't have much in them right now, but I hoped to change that.

Moving up to my neck, a thick scarf wrapped itself lightly around my neck and hung off my back. I got the idea for this from a few different sources, but I wanted to have an easy way to defend others in a pinch. The design company made this scarf able to expand to roughly the size of a tarp and it was made of materials that were both fireproof and resistant to several different threats. It wasn't a solution to everything but it was a good temporary relief.

I didn't have anything covering my head - At first, I considered a mask, but I opted against it. People should be able to see who's saving them in a crisis, in my opinion. The only thing different was that my normally very shaggy hair was somewhat combed, it'd get messed up pretty quickly in a battle but for now, it looked okay.

After my brief once-over, there was no more time to talk as All Might continued to explain what we were doing. "Alright! Today we will be doing a bit of old-fashioned combat training, as I said before!"

"Excuse me, sir!" Tenya shoots his hand into the air, clad in his armor as expected. It looks just as cool in person as I expected it to, honestly. "This is the same arena from our entrance exam, will we be participating in urban combat exercises?"

"Not exactly!"

All Might went on to explain the exercise - It was the same one I remembered. Teams will split up, one as heroes and one as villains, the villains will be tasked with defending a fake bomb while the heroes will be tasked with either capturing the villains or touching the bomb. The exercise ends in a villainous victory if the heroes are either all incapacitated, similarly bound, or the timer runs out before they can touch the bomb.

Tenya then raised his hand again, "Sir, one more question!"

"Yes, young man?"

"You said we will be divided into equal pairs, but there aren't enough students to make two extra teams! There are only enough for one extra team!"

All Might laughs before nodding, "Right you are young man! That is why two teams, which are randomly selected, will have three members instead of two! Those teams will go up against each other first, so there is no chance for imbalance!"

"That's very wise of you, sir!" Tenya responds, lowering his hand, "Thank you!"

"Alright!" All Might declares, "Now, everyone come up and take a number. Once you have your teams, the two tri-teams will be going first, after that the selections will be random!"

We all came up and drew our numbers, I was wondering who I was going to get on my team. After all, this was completely new. Completely up to chance!

I pulled out my number and went to find who I was with.

"Okumura!" I heard Tenya's voice declare, "It seems we're together!" He marched up to me, "It'll be good working with you!"

"Same to you Tenya, I wonder who-"

"Hey guys, looks like we're on the same team." Yamomo's voice called, waving her paper around, "Looks like we're one of the three mans."

This was my first chance to get a look at Momo's attire up close and I had to admit I was completely taken with it.

I mean it wasn't hard to be.

It was the same outfit I had watched on television a hundred times, seeing it in person was just another way to knock me off my feet, but I didn't want to stare too much.

Averting my eyes and clearing my throat, I spoke, "R-Right well, I guess we're up with the other three man then."

"I wonder who our opponents will be?" Tenya rubs his chin, in time for All Might to speak up in his grand voice.

"Alright! Will the two three-mans please step forward?"

The three of us stepped forward and were met with our opponents.

Bakugo glared at us, his arms crossed, "So you three are our opponents?" He grunts out, "Hm."

With him was Izuku, "Let's just make this a good match, guys!"

And Ochaco, who waved and smiled, "Hey guys! This is gonna be fun, right?"

We waved back, and All Might declared, "Right! Team Iida, you're the villains! Team Bakugo, you're the heroes! Villains, make your way into the building I've designated, you will have five minutes to set up before the heroes come in after you!"

With a shared look and a shrug we all headed inside the building and made our way up to where the bomb was located.

The building was just as needlessly complex and tall as I expected it to be, but Momo and Tenya seemed to navigate easy enough to it, so I just followed behind them and pretended like I knew where I was going as well.

As we were walking, I had to ask, "Hey Momo, why do you have a bookcase attached to your back when you could be using a carrying bag and avoid risking your book getting set on fire or lost?"

Momo laughed an understated laugh as we walked, "You may _think_ it's an ordinary bookshelf, but in actuality it's made of very special materials, and the book itself has powerful magnets placed on the inside and outer edges of it to avoid it falling off. The book is also easily replaceable, given my quirk."

"Aah, I see. Very forward thinking!"

The small talk lasted us until we got to the bomb, where Tenya inspected it by lightly tapping its metal casing, "Hollow. Good thing it's not a _real_ bomb, that would be particularly irresponsible of the school."

Both Momo and myself nod, before Momo takes a good look around, "Hmm. What do we know about our opponents? I admit I don't know much about any of their abilities, or of what you two are capable us. If we have knowledge ahead of time, we can work to counteract any plans they may have."

I answer promptly, tapping my finger to my cheek, "Izuku is very analytical and also very talented, but his quirk doesn't leave him much room for flexibility. Bakugo is by far our biggest issue, he has a strong quirk and knows how to use it, but he's not a team player. He'll likely rush ahead and leave the other two behind so he can try to take us out first. Uraraka seems very reliant on others right now, however I won't put it past her to go sneaking around if she's asked. So we should prepare for some kind of infiltration from her, and Izuku will likely be with her. Bakugo will be a rogue agent."

They both looked at me in mild surprise, and I suddenly realized I was probably rambling a bit. Is this what Izuku felt like. "E-Eh… Sorry if I got carried away."

"Not at all!" Tenya responded, "I'm just surprised you know so much about our classmates already."

"I am as well." Momo added, smiling, "I will admit though that was a clever analysis you just gave. I'm almost impressed."

I flushed a bit unwillingly, "T-Thanks. Uraraka is just a lucky guess, and I know both Izuku and Bakugo rather well since we went to school together."

"That explains why you and Midoriya seem to be such good friends!" Tenya responds, putting a fist into his hand dramatically, "What's our plan?"

Momo seemed to already be coming up with something, looking around the room we were located in.

It was rather wide open, plenty of space for a fight and at least three entry ways, but there were also a number of cement pillars holding the area up.

"Hmm… I'm inclined to agree that Bakugo would be hard to detain." The Creation Girl begins to make something, turning away from us and opening her shirt for room, "But the other two should be easy to subdue given we have the proper foresight and timing."

Both Tenya and I made sure to avert our gazes from her, and I spoke, "I think I should go out and go after Bakugo. If I can find him and keep him occupied long enough, you two can capture Midoriya and Uraraka and come with me to finish off Bakugo. Once we have all of them in captivity, we'll win!"

"That sounds risky, are you sure you can handle him?" Momo asks, it seems she was finished with whatever she was making from her front, she was holding whatever it was in her hand, "Let's all wear these. We can keep updated with each other."

In her hand was three ear pieces, one for each of us. We all took them and put them on.

"In a square fight I'd lose to Bakugo. At least right now." I respond, "But I've got a few tricks up my sleeve, I probably won't be able to incapacitate him, but if I can at the very least keep him distracted long enough for you guys to handle the other two, I won't need to worry about a one on one fight for very long."

"Alright, be careful Okumura!" Tenya warns, "I may not have seen much of Bakugo's capabilities as a whole yet but I know he's a dangerous opponent to face."

I give a thumbs up and wink to them while smiling as best I could, "Hey, don't worry about it. I've got this."

Then, I walked off out into the hallway, leaving Momo and Tenya to get to work on preparing to snag Izuku and Ochaco.

Despite my smile and confident words, I was kind of freaking out internally. I knew I was going to have to try my hardest to fight Bakugo - He'd be my toughest obstacle yet. My first real taste of combat.

I guess that was the point of this exercise, though.

…

I made my way down and heard the signal for the exam to start not long after. I hid in one of the empty rooms and waited for the inevitable signs that Bakugo was on his way.

Taking stock of where I was - I knew I was on the third floor, while the bomb was on the fifth. It might seem counterintuitive to position myself so high up, but it would give me time for Bakugo to come up on his own, away from Izuku.

I hoped he came alone and Izuku didn't follow him - I was banking on Deku knowing that reasoning with Bakugo was impossible and that they should come up with their own plan, but he might not.

My fellow hero-in-training didn't exactly always do the rational thing when it came to his childhood friend.

Sure enough, I heard the fervent stomping of boots against the ground coming up the hallway. He would need to turn in order to pass the room I was in and I waited for him right at the entrance so I could hopefully get the drop on him.

...Soon the stomping grew close enough, and I leapt out of the room and went to swing my fist at his gut, not using my quirk because I knew I had a high chance of seriously injuring him if I did that.

I managed to land my hit against his stomach and I heard him grunt in surprise and pain, but he quickly leapt back and gritted his teeth. "Well well, Okumura! I should have figured you'd come down here to face me, where are your teammates? Cowering with the bomb?"

"Doing a better job at cooperating than you are!" Looking Bakugo in the eyes, my quirk activates. I was aware that my eyes changed into something of a blue-looking target when this quirk was active, so that was perhaps my main tell. "Figured you'd come this way, and I didn't even need Foresight to tell that."

His hands sparking with ignition, Bakugo grinned a cocky and angry grin, "You damn idiot! You forgot your place once you lucked out with that second quirk. I'll remind you where you belong!"

Suddenly, he leapt towards me, yelling at the top of his lungs, "At the BOTTOM!"

Foresight told me what he'd be doing, and I shifted my body-weight, and as he brought one of his palms closer to me to try and explode me, I grabbed his wrist and reeled around, pulling his weight with me and slamming him against the concrete wall.

Letting out a gasp of pain and spit, he promptly fell to the ground and I let go of him, jumping back. Close quarters were his domain and I needed to stay at range, "You know Bakugo, you might not be cut out to be a hero, but I hear construction companies could always use a demolitions expert! Maybe that's more your speed?" I joked, knowing every quip I made at him only served to rile him up further.

Kicking himself up, Bakugo growled at me, "Would you SHUT UP?" He abruptly charged at me again, this time trying to fire off his explosion before it go to me.

Foresight once again coming to my rescue, I had just enough time to sidestep his attack, as the momentum carried him past me, I kicked him in the back and sent him sprawling onto the ground, "We could do this all day, or you could hold still long enough for me to get the tape I need to capture you out! What do you say? How bout you give me a break? I kind of want to finish before lunch time."

I couldn't help it at this point, and it was working. Like Spiderman taking on Rhino! Except, you know, I was fighting an explosion murderer.

"Shut. UP!" He used a minor explosion to send him into the air, in a quick motion he whirled around and directed a kick at me.

I went to block as my foresight directed, but right as it was predicting his next move, he sent out two minor explosions behind him that increased his velocity, despite blocking my face, he hit me directly and caused me to nearly fall backwards, it was all I had to simply force him off.

"If you can predict my moves, then I'll just have to break through your defenses!" Bakugo declared, "See what you can do about that!"

This was starting to worry me - I wasn't exactly the most durable person in the world right now. I had to keep a brave face though, like I know All Might would.

So, I unleashed my most devastating quip yet.

"So, Bakugo's your last name. You behave more like a _Baka-go_ though."

A pun to rule them all.

That only seemed to push him over the edge, "UUGHH! SHUT UP!"

Before he could move towards me again I leapt back a few feet, figuring I should get distance before he charged at me.

However, he wasn't planning to charge me this time.

Instead he raised his arm and began to pull the pin on his gauntlet, "Let's see you predict your way out of THIS!"

Was he seriously going to use that?!

Shit, maybe I went too far!

There was no way I could dodge this, so I did the next best thing.

Knowing that only using a finger would not protect me against this, I charged One for All through the entirety of my left arm and cocked it back.

I knew the exact Smash I needed to use, it was just too bad I couldn't say it out loud without Bakugo connecting the dots.

As the explosion cooked off and rushed towards me, filling the room with fire, I slammed my fist out, ' _TEXAS SMASH!'_

The explosion and the mixture of wind and pure force that was the Smash met together in the middle, cooking off an explosion dead in the center of the hallway where we had been fighting.

The force of the explosion was thankfully not large enough to actually level the floor but as I held myself back from getting blown off my feet, I knew the damage was going to be massive.

All Might's voice came on the speaker, "Young Bakugo! Do not use another attack like that! Your mission is to stop any damage to this building and your attack is potentially lethal to your fellow student! Use another and you will be disqualified."

I was momentarily distracted by All Might's announcement, but that didn't stop me from foretelling Bakugo leaping through the smoke at me, "I don't need that to beat you, now DIE!"

With one arm incapacitated, I knew I couldn't just deflect his attacks. I was getting desperate.

I raised my other arm and as quickly as I could fired off a Delaware Smash, aimed directly at Bakugo.

Bakugo was faster than me, however, and once the smash was fired off, he used his explosions to redirect his movement and went right under the attack, instead allowing it to punch a hole in the ceiling.

No amount of foresight would allow me to react quickly enough to that! Not in my current state. I was forced to brace myself for impact, shutting my eyes and covering my face with my one useful arm.

 _THUNK_

...The impact never came.

Instead, when I opened my eyes, I saw Bakugo wrapped in some kind of capture net, falling harmlessly to the ground with a loud grunt, "WHAT THE HELL?! GET THIS OFF ME!"

"And it's decided! The villains win!"

Coming out of the smoke and debris was Momo, carrying a device I could only assume shot out the net, "You really made a mess down here, didn't you?" She idly looked around, before spotting my arm and gasping and rushing over, "Your arm! It's just like at the entrance exam!"

I waved my good hand, "Y-Yeah, don't worry. It's fine."

Momo turned away from me for a second, "Hold on." She commands, and I could only nod.

After a minute she had a medical-grade splint, which she used to set my arm, "This will hold you until we can get you to the nurse."

Bakugo wasn't finished yelling, "HEY, YOU WON, NOW CUT ME FREE DAMN IT!"

She was still fixing the splint on my arm, and I grunted in pain, "You should probably set him free before he tries to blow up the building."

"I will in a minute." She responds calmly, "You're injured, you need attention first."

Having her this close to me, taking care of me like this… Hell, it almost made the pain shooting through my arm tolerable.

It took another minute but soon my arm was in the splint, and Momo held out her hand towards the air, creating a knife and kneeling down, cutting Bakugo loose.

Bakugo grunted and got up, before storming off, not even looking at either of us.

Momo looked back at me as she stood up straight, "Tenya's already cut the others loose by now and is probably heading down, let's get back to the observation room so we can get you to the nurse."

I nod and start to walk with her.

I had only walked about five feet before the world suddenly started to spin and I was falling.

"Gotcha!" Momo caught me in her arms, "You're really not well. Come on, I'll get you there quickly!" Then, she started to jog.

I had my eyes closed as I coughed, "Adrenaline's wearing off is all… Trust me it's… Not that bad."

"You can't fool me! You can't walk, your arm is broken and one of your fingers on your other hand is broken. Your injuries might not be fatal but I know they're serious."

Yeah I guess it would be a fool's errand to trick Momo, given how smart she was.

…

I was whisked away to Recovery Girl's office and left on the medical bed so she could tend to my injuries.

Of course, that came with a healthy lecture.

"What did I tell you about using your quirk like that?" Recovery Girl wags her finger, "Going too far is dangerous, young man! You'd better figure out how to control that thing, and soon!"

Laughing softly, I nod, "Believe me, ma'am, I'd love nothing more than to never break my bones on purpose again. This time it wasn't even really a choice. Damn Bakugo and his grenade arms…"

"He is a strange young man, but my point stands." Then, she used her quirk and my arm and finger began to right themselves. "You'll likely be falling asleep shortly, I'll put your arm in a proper cast for the healing to continue."

"R-Right, thank you…" I yawn heavily, "Ma'am…"

The exhaustion from the healing and from the fight caught up to me, my eyelids were growing heavy. Soon, my vision of the room was lost to the welcome respite of sleep.

…

 **(All Might POV)**

"That concludes our training! For your first exercise, you all did wonderfully! Now, you must change back into your uniforms and return to the classroom!"

The assorted students nodded to me and gave out a, "Yes sir!" Before leaving.

They all performed about as well as I expected, some needed more work than others but that would come with training and dedication.

Meanwhile, I went to go check on my 'apprentice' or whatever the proper term for that would be.

What Bakugo did was reckless and he received a proper reprimand for it, so I couldn't blame young Akio for his reaction. I'd have done the same thing in his shoes.

Then again Gran Torino always said I was reckless, so maybe Akio and I were just too alike?

When I arrived in Recovery Girl's office, I let go of my Hero Form, the power of One for All retreating into my body again, leaving me my 'normal' short self. "How is he?" Was the first question I asked as I walked over to look at Akio.

The young man was out cold, his scruffy blue hair covered his eyes in this state, and the steady rise and fall of his chest was the only real indication that he wasn't dead. Even though I knew better - Recovery Girl would never let a student die on her watch.

"He's fine, should wake up soon. He's been out since the end of his exam, after all. All Might, I told you to try and help him get his quirk under control! Did Gran Torino help you?"

"Yeah, he did. Honestly the kid is progressing a lot smoother than I expected, all things considered. It's a wonder he hasn't gained control of his power yet."

"How much do you really know about him, All Might?"

The question took me by surprise.

I'd been training this kid for a year now, give or take, and what could I say I knew about him? Sure, I knew he had the same fire as me and that he had the stuff to be my replacement, and there was one other thing…

"I know enough that I'm just as certain of my faith in him now as I was a year ago."

"This isn't about his father? Not even a little bit?"

"Of course not. I mean sure, I was interested in the kid's development, and I promised myself I'd keep an eye on him after what happened, but I wouldn't have given him my quirk if I didn't see the potential he had. I didn't give it to his dad, did I?"

"I guess you're right." Recovery Girl turned in her chair to look at Akio, "I'm still worried about the boy. It's not healthy for him to be straining himself as much as I know he is."

"It isn't… But it's for the best. This power… One for All. The user won't have proper control of it unless they push themselves and go beyond. The power comes at the price of tough training and dedication… But once he has control of it, you won't have to worry about broken bones."

Recovery Girl seemed deep in thought, "I hope you know what you're doing, All Might."

I honestly didn't, but I was learning to teach and mentor as much as Akio was learning to use One for All.

"I hope so, too."

With that, Recovery Girl suggested I get back to deliver my final words to the class for the day, and so I left. I just hoped Akio wouldn't let this power ruin his body before he gained control over its percentage.

…..

 **(AKIO POV)**

After waking up I was discharged and told to get changed back into my normal outfit and make my way to class, as the day was wrapping up and it seemed my classmates were waiting for me.

It was a bit difficult changing with a caste on but I guess it could have been worse. At least my Costume only sustained minor damage, nothing that couldn't be repaired. Better than Izuku's original costume in the show, at least. That was probably just because I actually had this one made by a company, though.

It was already afternoon and the window-lined walkway to the classroom was given an orange tint to it as I headed back to class 1-A. It was kind of peaceful, to look out the window and see the sun throwing colors across the sky.

As I looked to the exit, I saw Bakugo leaving with Izuku in tow, they seemed to be having some kind of conversation. It was likely that Izuku was trying to calm Bakugo down after his loss.

I wondered how that would go. I certainly wasn't going to go down there…

Once I reached 1-A, I slid open the door and was greeted almost immediately.

"Hey, there he is! Man of the hour." Kirishima waved from leaning back in his seat.

Everyone waved to me and greeted me in varying degrees as I waved back, "Hey guys. Were you waiting for me?"

Well, some did a lot more than wave.

Himiko got up and rushed over to me, rushing me down and hugging me, "I didn't think we'd see you again today! Your fight was so cool!"

I blushed and went to get her off of me, gently, "E-Easy, still kind of sore."

Himiko let go, giggling, "Sorry!"

Momo and Tenya came over, Tenya being the first to speak, "I must commend you for holding your own against Bakugo long enough for us to get our job done, it shames me to say that I doubted you for even a second!"

Laughing a little bit, I give a thumbs up with my good hand, "Hey, I told you I got this."

Momo smiled a sort of smug smile, "As far as ending the fight with a broken arm and nearly fainting from exhaustion qualifies as 'having this.'"

I deflated and sighed as her correct respond got some snickers, "Ugh, how did you guys capture Izuku and Ochaco anyways?" I figured changing the subject would be a good thing to do right now.

"Well, let me tell you!" Momo declares, before starting to go off on her story…

 _Momo and Tenya were busy setting up their traps - Laying out nets on the ground and blocking off certain entrances so the heroes would only have one area to enter from._

" _Are you sure this will work?" Tenya asks, "I would think our classmates might avoid something as simple as floor traps…"_

" _That's what these are for." Momo holds up one of the net launchers, "We just need to make sure we use them at the right moment. Izuku might be easy to restrain in that suit of his but Uraraka is probably going to be a bit slippery."_

" _I have faith in you." Tenya responds to her, "After all you proved to be one of the most strategic class members already. Do you think Okumura will be fine?"_

 _Sighing, Momo shrugs, "I hope so. He looked confident, so we just have to put our faith in him."_

 _Once the set up was finished, the two of them hid away from the direct view and waited for things to kick off._

… _._

 _After awhile the sounds of combat below were getting rather loud, and Momo expressed concern, "I hope he's okay down there… Sounds like a real bad fight."_

" _Have faith." Tenya responds, "Let's just do our part, then we can help him!"_

 _Sure enough, soon Izuku came by the entrance with Ochaco, "Hold on Uraraka, that's a floor trap. I'll burn it with my quirk, then we can go in."_

" _What if they're waiting for us, Izuku?"_

" _Hmm… You're right. Maybe try floating yourself over while I disable this?"_

" _Good idea!"_

 _Momo nodded to Tenya and the two of them waited just thirty seconds before leaping out, Momo shot her net-gun at Uraraka, catching her mid glide and sending her onto the floor trap, causing it to pull both her and Deku into it._

" _A master stroke, Yaoyorozu!" Tenya exclaims, "Sorry you two, it's all in the spirit of the exercise!"_

" _Can't believe I didn't think of that!" Izuku grumbles as he struggles, "I guess we're trapped." His voice clearly defeated._

" _Cheer up, Izuku! We did our best!"_

" _Iida, stay here and watch them for any funny business. I'm going to go down and see if Okumura needs any help."_

" _Right!"_

….

"So, that simple huh?"

"All the result of careful planning!" Tenya proclaimed.

"Speaking of planning," I note, looking between Himiko and Momo, "When do we plan on studying?"

Momo's eyes lit up adorably again, "Oh! I can't believe I almost forgot! Here, I'll give you two my cell number so we can keep in touch. Just text me so i can get your numbers back." She quickly summoned a piece of paper in her hand, writing the information down on a regular pen she had on her before handing us two slips of paper.

I pulled out my phone, as did Himiko, and we recorded her number.

I noted that Himiko's phone was a rather outdated flip-phone model. Seriously, weren't those things really cheap and old at this point?

I could tell other people noticed but it's unlikely they wanted to say anything.

I sent Momo a text telling her it was me, and said, "Alright there, now you've got my number. I should probably start heading home, if class is done for the day. This arm needs rest if I'm gonna be ready for tomorrow."

Himiko did much the same as me, "I'll come with! I love talking to people but I should be catching the train."

"Sure thing, let's get going." I wave to the others and the two of us leave the classroom after Himiko and I grabbed our stuff, the others would probably be leaving before too long as well, since the day was over.

…

The walk to the train station was peaceful enough. Himiko was kind of growing on me in the short time I'd known her - Maybe I was just trying to give her a chance, since she seemed to be nothing but friendly, if a bit creepy and strange at times. Her genuine infatuation with All Might also helped me convince myself she didn't really have any sort of villainous carry-over or whatever from the show.

Once we got on the train, I sat down on one of the seats, with Himiko next to me and sighed.

"So, Aki! What are you gonna do now that school's over for the day?"

"I don't really know. Rest, probably. Gonna be boring since my arm is going to be in this cast until tomorrow morning according to Recovery Girl, so I can't use my computer very effectively or anything. What about you?""

Himiko sighed, suddenly looked a bit dejected, "Nothing. Same as always. It's so boring at my place!"

Humming, I realized if I went to her place I could get an idea of if she's really a hero or just pretending. That would finally confirm me one way or the other. "Want me to come over for a bit? I've got nothing better to do."

I expected some sort of excited gasp or something, but instead she looked away nervously, "A-Are you sure? It might be extra boring… You know, my house isn't that fun."

There was something suspicious.

What could she have to hide from me? With the way she's been acting towards me these past few days, she should be jumping at the chance to spend time with me outside of school. I couldn't pass this up now, so I pressed. "It's fine. Besides, if we get bored at your house we can just walk around outside, you know?"

Himiko still looked nervous, before nodding, "O-Okay. That sounds fine!"

With that, I nod and we fall silent, the rest of the train ride spent that way until we finally arrived at our stop.

Once we got off, we started to walk much like we were walking to my home. No trace of Izuku, so it's likely he caught the train before this one and got home early. Or maybe he was still at UA, who knew.

"Well go on and lead the way." I gesture once we passed my apartment complex, "You said you lived down this way, right?"

"Yeah, just this way!" She started to take the lead.

'Just this way' ended up being quiet the trek.

We went through one alleyway wedged in between the fencing, into another alleyway, and kept twisting and turning for I don't know how long.

We were getting into visibly less well-kept space now, with trash starting to become common to see on the ground and dead plants joining them in some occasions. Nobody approached us, but the people I did see didn't look the friendly type.

Just when we were getting to the point where I questioned exactly where she lived, we came across a run-down building that looked like a set of abandoned and under-kept tenements. "W-Well, here we are!" She gestures, "Come on!"

How could someone live in a place like this? It looked like people hadn't lived in here in ages!

We walked into the building and began to climb steps. Indeed, it seemed very few people lived here. The ones who did looked homeless, or at least near-about. What kind of place was this?

"Himiko…" I mutter once we pass an opened apartment door with a woman just… Sitting inside staring at the wall. "You live in this place?"

"U-Uhh… Yeah, you must think it's… Pretty lame, huh?"

"I think I'd use a different word for it…"

Deplorable sounded more like it.

We eventually reached a room that she opened with a rusted key, once she headed inside she squealed, "Rat!" Then took out a knife from her jacket and tossed it with expert precision at the large vermin, killing it in the blink of an eye.

I jumped in surprise, "Jeez, Himiko!"

"Sorry! These things get in here sometimes…" While she went to retrieve the knife, I looked around the room.

There was barely anything in regards to furniture. A single bed pushed into the corner, a run-down desk with a hot-plate plugged into the wall on top of it, and a single door that led to what I presumed was a bathroom I wanted nothing to do with.

She didn't even have a dresser - What clothes she had were piled into a ball in the corner! That didn't look sanitary…

"Himiko… You really live here…" I was astonished, "Where are your parents?"

She looked back at me after getting her knife from the rat and tossing the rat out the window, there were the beginnings of tears in her eyes, "H-Hopefully the same place as yours…"

Oh…

"I see… What happened, if you can tell me?"

She went and sat down on her bed, "When I was a little girl… We lived somewhere better. They were heroes… But a villain discovered where we lived." She swallows a lump in her throat, "They came and when my parents were sleeping… They… Well… You know… I only got out cause I was awake when I wasn't supposed to be. I left and tried to get help, but the villain caught me first. I thought I was dead, but… A hero patrol saved me. They beat the villain and took me to an orphanage…"

I was stunned, but had one question, "T-Then… Why are you living here? Not there?"

"I did for a few years… Until two years ago. The owner of the orphanage kicked me out because I was… Scaring the others." She began to tear up more, and the tears began to fall. I had no choice but to move over and put an arm around her as I sat with her.

"H-He said I was 'unwell' and should be in a crazy house… I just wanted friends! A-And my quirk… It was making people nervous, cause they thought I was taking people's blood… I wouldn't do th-that!"

I suddenly felt horrible for assuming Himiko was up to no good as she continued to bawl openly, burying her face into my side once she realized I was sitting next to her.

"How did you find this place…?"

"I didn't have the money for anywhere better… I-I only get to stay here because the owner doesn't even check this building. It's like… For squatters."

This was all so… Jarring compared to what I was expecting from this girl. Completely out of left field! But I knew what I had to do.

"Himiko…" I mutter softly, trying to comfort her, "I can't let you stay here. Not in these conditions… Come stay with me."

She looked up at me, shocked, "R-Really? W-Why would you want me there? Aren't you scared of me?"

"Why would I be scared of you?" I ponder, "Sure, you do act a little weird sometimes… But that's just part of who you are. I don't have a lot of space, but it's more comfortable and a lot safer than living here. You can be like… My roommate or something. And don't worry about paying rent, I've got plenty of money."

"Well… Okay. I promise I'll be on my best behavior, anyways."

"Now get your clothes together, use my bag to carry them." I shoulder my backpack off my back using my good arm, since my other one was still incapacitated for the time being. It meant I had to let go of Himiko, but that was fine considering she had to get up anyways.

She took my bag with a thanks and went to do just that. She didn't have many changes of clothes, which made me think my laundry room was going to be getting a lot of use tonight.

I stood up and looked around, this place honestly disgusted me...

Himiko finished packing up, probably having to push aside some of my school work, but that was fine, "I'm ready. I won't stay too long… I don't want to impose."

I shrug, "It's fine. It honestly gets boring there anyways. You'll get the bed until I can buy a second bed, now let's get out of here. This place gives me the creeps."

So, we left. I personally wanted to hurry as much as possible back, but Himiko needed to lead me back using her intricate network of alleyways.

Honestly a part of me was worried about letting her into my home, but the overwhelming side of me that desired to do good won out. Besides, it wouldn't be permanent. I could help her get her own place before too long, I was sure. I'd probably need to help pay, but… Well, that was just something that I'd have to deal with when it came to it.

...Besides, two teenagers living in the same house while not sharing any blood relation was going to raise questions, questions I wanted to avoid because I honestly didn't want to think about anything like that. Not with anyone.

I wonder what Izuku would think? I'm sure he'd understand once it was explained. He would likely be doing the same thing if he could.

It was already dark by the time we got back to my complex and I opened the door, walking inside. "Well, welcome to my home." I gesture, "It's not much but I think it serves me well."

Himiko was of course looking around curiously, "This is so nice and so clean!"

"Yeah well… I try. Anyways, bedroom is that door there. You'll be sleeping in there and I'll be sleeping on the couch. Don't worry about it being bad or something, the couch is pretty cozy. The bathroom is right there." I gesture to it, "When you want to shower or anything. There's a laundry room, where you should probably be unloading your clothes. Didn't look like you had an automatic washing machine in that building…"

She shakes her head, "I washed them in the bathtub."

"Alright well, go ahead and unload them. Try not to get my homework or anything thrown in there with it. If you have questions about how to use it… Well, come ask I guess, or you can borrow my phone and look it up."

"I think I got it!" She states confidently, before walking off, seeming to have a pep in her step.

I sighed, wondering what I'd just gotten myself into. Having a roommate was something I had gotten used to in the old life but this was… Different.

I just hoped it wouldn't come back to bite me in the ass eventually.

….

That night, I had finished setting up the couch as my resting spot, both Himiko and I had gotten our showers and changed into casual clothes. Himiko thankfully had a pair - Maybe I could get Momo to go shopping with her one day? It seems like she'd need that.

Himiko needed a lot of things, I felt.

As I laid in bed, getting ready to fall asleep, I wondered what tomorrow would hold. My memory of the show was fuzzy, and with how different things were, you could never be certain.

I just hoped it wasn't too intensive.

* * *

 **A/N:** Howdy folks! The poll is still ongoing. And I would like to assuage the fear that this move-in will in any way be indicative of a relationship. I have plans one way or the other. The poll will close on Wednesday and whoever has the most votes will win and become the primary ship.


	5. Mr President and the Simulations, P 1

_A/N:_ _Fear not readers! For I am here! I seriously apologize for how long it took to publish this chapter... Fading interest and life obligations kept me from the fandom and my stories, but I'm here again. In regards to the old Shipping poll, I may hold another if interest is high enough, but the last vote was for Momo. I'll try my best to make the story go in that direction if it holds true that the readers want it, but I can't promise it won't potentially change at some point! That is the nature of fanfiction after all.  
_

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Waking up the next day was a bit… Alarming, given how out of it I was at first.

I woke up to Himiko staring down at me with a grin on her face.

"Wha-" I sat up quickly, almost hitting Himiko on the head with my own head, only her leaping back kept that from happening, "Who-" I calmed down, breathing deeply, "Oh… Geeze. Himiko. Gotta be careful when doing that. What if I thought you were a criminal or something?"

The only response I got was a giggle, "Sorry!" She was already dressed for school, "Guess I got a bit excited. I slept sooo good! I woke up early, too! I figured I'd get you up since your alarm on your phone was about to go off too…"

"You checked my phone?"

"Maybe!"

...I needed to set a lock for that thing.

"Alright." I threw back the covers, grateful for the idea I had to sleep in shorts and a T-shirt, "Well. I'm going to take a shower and change then get breakfast started."

"Okay! I'll be here. I'd cook buuut I dunno how."

I figured as much, given that she didn't exactly seem to have many life skills.

"I'll teach you some day soon."

"Yay, thanks!"

I nodded before going back to my room and grabbing my uniform from the closet before marching off to the bathroom, still rather drowsy.

I went through my daily ritual, first showering then drying and dressing, before going to brush my teeth. There were a few things I noticed as I did this - Like how it seems Himiko was using my toothbrush and deodorant, and my towels. That was all fine, I suppose. Although I'd really need to take her shopping for her own soon…

It was understandable that she would use them for the moment, but it didn't make it any less weird to me.

I just made sure to wash off the toothbrush as thoroughly as I could before I used it.

Once I was dressed and properly clean all-around, I headed out to the kitchen. Toga was sitting in the living room on my makeshift-bed, cleaning her knife.

That gave me pause, and I had to ask, "Why do you have that knife anyways, Toga?"

Toga looked up at me, she seemed kind of surprised, although I couldn't tell if it was my sudden appearance or the question itself, either way once she got over it she put back on her usual smile, "Well, you saw that rat! Besides, a girl like me has to protect herself you know? So it's mostly for self-defense. Since I can't even really use it for my quirk - It's far more efficient using a syringe for that."

That made sense, I suppose. Remembering what that complex looked like was enough to make me want to shiver. Someone without some kind of defensive or offensive quirk _would_ be hard pressed to stay safe in a place like that.

"Fair enough."

That was all I could really say, I mean. What else was there to say?

With that done, I headed to the kitchen and started to cook, reminding myself to make enough for two this time. I wonder when the last time Himiko had a proper breakfast was?

I wish I could say I was making something Japanese that Himiko might be familiar with - But I was still, in my soul and in what made up a large chunk of my memories, American. So I was making bacon, eggs, and toast.

I guess you could take the soul out of their country… And world, but couldn't take the country and the world out of the soul.

It didn't take long for Himiko to notice the irregularity, as I was making the bacon first and the loud sizzling combined with the smell drew her notice.

She perked up from cleaning her knife and put it away before bounding over to me, "Are you making bacon? I love bacon! I don't usually get to eat it much. It's been ramen and rice for me for the longest time."

"Well don't worry about that now." I pat her on her shoulder, "As long as you're staying with me you'll have a bigger selection of things to eat. So long as you don't mind eating healthy… I can't really do the whole 'junk food' thing. At least not often, have to keep strong."

Himiko crossed her arms and gave a playful ponderous hum, "What about all those sodas in the fridge?"

"T-That's different. I work off those and I only have one or two a day."

My roommate proceeded to open my fridge and take one of my sodas, opening it and start to drink, "If you say so!"

I squinted at her before going back to cooking, "It'll be ready in about… Twenty minutes, I think. Since I have to cook the eggs and some extra strips of bacon and this bit isn't even done cooking yet."

She nods a few times, smiling, "Okay~ I'll be in the living room!" She bounded back off, and I heard the TV turn on as I went to look back at the food.

Boy, it was kind of like living with a toned-down, aged-down Harley Quinn. At least this one wasn't in love with me.

I don't think I could really handle love, I mean how would I even make the other person happy? What did I have? I had a lot of doubt on that.

Besides, who would even have a crush on someone like me, when the rest of class 1-A had so many guys that either more attractive, kinder, smarter, or all three?

Suddenly, my phone buzzed to alert me of a text message, taking me away from my rumination.

I moved the bacon from the pan and onto a napkin to let the grease get soaked up before checking my phone to see who texted me.

Momo: "Hey Akio! So I think it'll be okay if you and Toga come over on Saturday. My parents said it was fine."

Saturday seemed appropriate, all things considered.

Akio: "Sounds good to me. I'll let Himiko know since we ride the same train. See you at school!"

I put my phone away and went back to fixing breakfast.

"Hey Himiko, Momo said we're gonna be studying at her place on Saturday."

"Oh, fun! I hope it's not all studying though. Class is boring!"

"Yeah, I agree, but we gotta do it."

Once I finished cooking I made sure both our plates were set and called Himiko over to my dining table, before sitting down and starting to eat, having requisitioned a soda from my fridge.

Himiko began to dig in almost immediately - Her appreciation for the food was very evident. Meanwhile, I stared at the unopened soda.

Shutting my eyes and channeling One for All throughout my body, I very carefully moved my hands to grasp the soda. I could hear Himiko stopping what she was doing to watch, but I continued anyways. Gently, I pulled open the top. It still took no effort to do, and I pulled it back. I thought it was going to be effortless, but unfortunately I ripped off the soda tab.

Could have been worse, but I sighed as I let One for All retreat back inside me and opened my eyes.

Himiko looked at me with wide yellow eyes and tilted her head, "What was that about?"

"My power, it's… Not the easiest to control right now. I have to train myself in an attempt to get finer control over it, so I can avoid breaking my arms when I use it. Or, well, breaking anything when I use it."

I take a straw I had sitting to the side in case this very problem occurred and put it in the can, taking a sip as Himiko responded.

"Isn't it a bit strange that you can't control your power yet?" She observes, in a rather perceptive manner for someone like her, "I mean it's your power after all…"

"W-Well, it's very strong. Trust me when I say that all the training and all the effort I put in will come in handy and when I do get control of it, I'll be a true hero."

"Just like All Might!"

Smiling, I take a bite of my bacon before nodding, "That's the dream, Himi. That's the dream."

"Awh, you called me Himi! You gave me a nickname!"

I roll my eyes as I keep my smile, "Yeah well. You're basically living here now. You're like… A sister or something. I might as well shorten your name a bit."

Himiko gave me a shocked look, and I couldn't tell if what I said was good or bad. Especially when her lip started to quiver.

"H-Himiko? Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, I just…" She wipes away a stray tear, "I haven't had a family in so long! S-So… Being considered a sister really means a lot. Does that mean… We can be family?"

Now it was my turn to be taken aback. Wasn't this a bit sudden? I'd only 'known' her for a couple days now! Then again… This was still Toga we were talking about. The one who, in another reality, fell in love with Izuku after five seconds and considered Uraraka and Tsuyu to be her friends.

Maybe this wasn't that far fetched, given who I was talking to.

"You know what?" I say after a moment, "...Sure. We can be like brother and sister."

Himiko gave off a smile that could have powered half the city with its intensity, before going back to destroying her food.

I ate a bit more calmly, entertaining the idea of how I had somehow acquired a pseudo-sister in a very short amount of time. Not exactly what I expected to happen when I first joined UA.

…

We finished eating, washed our plates, and headed outside together.

Right into Izuku, who was waiting outside my door. The shocked look on his face when both of us emerged from my apartment was something I wish I could have framed on my wall.

"A-Akio?! Toga?! W-What are you doing in the same house? I mean Himiko lived around here but she didn't live with you and the idea of you two being in the same house like that is so weird it makes my head hurt and I mean are you two-"

"Izuku, calm down man." I patted his shoulder, "I'll explain on the train ride, trust me it's nothing like what you're thinking."

Nodding slowly, but still casting skeptical glances between the two of us, we headed to the train station in relative silence, except for Himiko's humming that managed to at the very least not make the walk feel awkward.

Once we were all on the train and managed by the grace of some god or another to get seats, Izuku blurted out in a thankfully hushed tone, "So what was that about? Are you two-"

"No, no. Here, I'll explain, Izuku." I interrupt him before explaining the entire situation. I knew Himiko wouldn't care if I told Izuku, even if I probably shouldn't be going around announcing it to everyone. Izuku was someone I trusted with a much deeper secret than this, so I think he could get a pass.

At the end of the explanation Izuku looked about as close to crying as Himiko had been yesterday - He was very empathetic, I'll give him that. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, Toga! If you ever need anything, you can come to me you know! And Akio was really nice giving you a place to stay."

Himiko smiles, "I know! And thank you, it's going to be fun being neighbors!"

"Yeah it is!" Izuku pumped his first, and I couldn't help but smile.

These two seemed permanently optimistic about life. I had to wonder how they did it.

Maybe they could teach me some day, I know I sure as hell could use some of their boundless optimism.

Or maybe I could figure out how to bottle it up and sell it.

...That sounded like some villains quirk, actually. I hoped I never encountered a quirk like that.

….

The rest of the ride was uneventful and soon we were finding our way to class. I didn't see anyone else in the hallway, but I knew that was just because most of the other students seemed eerily quick about getting to school.

They probably just lived closer.

Something that bothered me was that we weren't accosted by reporters like I had originally anticipated we would be on the way here. Wasn't that supposed to happen the day after the big battle trial?

Maybe they just hadn't properly gotten wind of All Might being a teacher yet, or maybe they were being slow about trying to get an interview. Either way, I hoped this wasn't some sort of sign of things to come.

When we got inside everyone was seated but generally either talking to people near them or playing around on their phones waiting for class to start.

Sero was the one who noticed us coming in, "Hey guys!" He waved at us, and I waved back.

Himiko was a bit more vocal, "Heeyy!" While Izuku just waved with a nervous smile.

Still not a very sociable guy, huh Izuku?

You'd get there eventually.

Pushing my musings to the side, I made my way over to my seat and got comfortable. Momo was in front of me and seemed buried in a book, I wasn't one to disturb. Although as she closed the book, the title caught my interest...

 _Supernormal: An up to date history of Quirks._

"A book on the history of quirks?" I ponder out loud, causing her to jump a bit in surprise.

"Y-You scared me! Yeah, well you did say you were having trouble with recent history, so I figured I'd get a few books on the topic. This is just one of them."

I was a bit surprised she'd do that just for me, a smile crept up on my face. "You're too nice, you know that, Momo?"

That was met with a smile, "I'm really not, after all you said you have trouble with it, so I might as well do all I can, right?"

"You might say that, but in my opinion you're going _Plus Ultra._ "

Momo giggled, covering her mouth. That reaction honestly made me feel good, and I couldn't really tell why.

"I think you're the one going further beyond here, Akio. At least with your sense of humor."

I wave my hand and lean back, "Wasn't that good a joke. You should have heard some of the stuff I was using on Bakugo."

"Oh, what'd you use?"

Just then, I heard the door opening as Aizawa came in, and I whispered to her, "Tell you later."

Aizawa stood in front of the podium and spoke, "I reviewed all of your battle trial results. You all performed well." He looked to Katsuki, "Bakugo. You're talented, so don't sulk like a child over your loss."

Bakugo, I could tell, was still sulking no matter what. If anything, maybe he took Aizawa's words as a challenge to sulk even more.

"Now…" Aizawa continued, "This next task will decide all of your futures."

I could feel the mood drop as everyone looks concerned about what could possibly be thrown at them next by our homeroom teacher, and a smile crossed my lips.

I knew what this was.

"You're going to be voting for your class representative."

Virtually everyone sighed in relief, even Himiko! I wonder what she could have been worried about?

Of course, what followed was everyone making their own declaration of desire to be class rep.

Then, Tenya interrupted with his speech, "Everyone! The class rep needs to be someone who is suited for leadership, this is not a job just anyone can take! Therefore the only logical means to select our class representative is democratically!"

"But won't everyone just vote for themselves?" I heard Denki point out, "Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?"

"Not at all! Whoever gets multiple votes will clearly be the one best suited for the job, by that logic!"

"Alright, I guess that makes sense." Was the response, followed by murmurs of agreement.

"Mr. Aizawa, do you permit this course of action?" Tenya asks as Aizawa zipped himself up in his sleeping bag.

"Do whatever you want just decide before my nap is done."

"Thank you for your faith, sir!"

It was only after we all started writing our votes that I realized something.

The USJ attack happens the same day as the election.

Oh shit.

How did that slip my mind?! I needed to do something about it!

I tried to reign in my current panic by taking a deep breath and focusing on the voting. There would be time to try and formulate a plan afterwards.

My vote was submitted for Momo. I wanted to make sure she either got class rep or at least deputy - I knew she deserved it and she was intelligent enough to lead. Tenya deserved it as well, but if Izuku ended up class rep again, then I knew Tenya would find his way to power through Izuku before today was over and everything would be all right.

….

How did this happen?!

I found myself standing in front of the class trying to keep my posture straight as I threw some glances at the board to check the totals.

Akio Okumura - Four votes.

Momo Yaoyorozu - Three Votes

Almost everyone else, except for Izuku, Himiko, Tenya, and Tsuyu, sat at one vote.

I guess that solved who voted for me..

But why?! Now this on top of the impending attack…

"Well, there you have it." Aizawa declares, "Your class rep is Okumura, with Yaoyorozu as deputy."

Momo smiled at me, although I could tell she really wanted that rep spot. It made me feel just a little bad for her - But I was more worried about the other stuff.

Who could I tell…?

Foresight wasn't common knowledge among the class and I liked to keep it that way - The less people knew about my first quirk the less they questioned me harboring two quirks.

Izuku and Bakugo were the only two that knew about Foresight, and even then I don't think Bakugo would want to listen to me after yesterday…

And if I told Izuku about it, he might make some kind of big stink about it to the pros before I could even come up with a plan. Before any of us could.

And this was at an off-campus facility…

….

After spending all of the morning classes gnawing on a pencil nervously over the thoughts in my mind, lunch had finally come.

The same group as yesterday, with Tsu as an addition, sat at the table eating and talking. Although I was busier staring at my food while trying to form some kind of plan to deal with this impending attack on a center.

I was only taken out of my thoughts when Izuku poked me on the arm, "Hey, are you alright? You've been really quiet since homeroom."

"Yeah." Himiko agreed between bites of rice, "You look real scared!"

As much as I wanted to just tell them what was going to happen, I knew I couldn't. First off, I likely wouldn't be believed. Second off, it would mean unveiling my first quirk to nearly all of them, barring Izuku, who already knows.

"It's… Just the class president thing. I don't think I'm really cut out for it!" I partially lied. The idea of being class president was still not exactly what I wanted, and I'd rather Tenya have the position. It just wasn't the most pressing matter on my brain at the moment.

"You're perfect for the spot, Okumura!" Tenya spoke, "How you reassured Yaoyorozu and I of your plan, and how you handled Bakugo. Let's not forget how you risked your life to save Tsuyu, you're clearly a born leader!"

I was anything BUT a born leader.

"I don't think so, honestly…" I rub my head sheepishly, "You should really be leader, Tenya. You're so much more organized and… Respectable than I am."

"I don't know about that." Tsu interjected, looking up from her own food, "Sure, Tenya is official, but the fact that so many of us would sacrifice any chance we had to get the rep status just for you to take charge means you're respectable as well."

That gave me pause, they all did put their faith in me… As misplaced as it might be. It'd be insulting to them if I just shoved off all that responsibility onto Tenya because I knew there was a certain way things were meant to go.

I could also make Tenya a deputy… That still offered a good deal of prestige even if it wasn't _Class Rep_ levels.

Then again, if things went like I remembered they would soon, then maybe I could use that as an opportunity to get Tenya into position?

I was brought out my pondering by none other than my Vice-Rep, Momo.

Vice-Rep was kinda long though. Maybe I'll call her Rice or something. Vice? Rice sounds better.

"You know, Rep position aside, you have been acting rather strange today. Ever since this morning you've been really quiet and I think you've gone through at least two pencils. You had to ask me to make you a new one, remember?"

She was right, all my attempts at hiding my worry over today were in vain. I tried to chew on my pencil to repress it, but I ended up going through two pencils and the only reason the one Momo made survived was because she made it an _ink pencil_ which was shaped like a pen but could be erased.

I didn't even know that kind of pencil existed, but it did. Pretty cool, if you ask me, but it ruined my pencil destruction spree.

"Yeah… I know. I just have a lot on my mind, guys. I'm really fine."

"I'm too smart for th-"

 _RINGRINGRINGRING!_

Momo's incoming dissection of my lie was interrupted when the alarm I had been expecting went off.

As normal, Tenya asked about it and got his response from a random nearby upperclassmen, and everyone began rushing out of their chairs and towards the door.

I decided to avoid rushing out with them - I should have been worried it'd be suspicious that as everyone around me was getting up and rushing towards the door, I kind of sat there and waited for a chance to get up and observe the situation.

Of course, nobody really noticed as they were all hurrying out the door.

Well, except for one person.

"Akio, why are you just sitting there?"

Ah, my Vice. Rice? Whatever. Momo.

I looked over to her. She was standing up and had an urgent stance to her, but had yet to take off.

I gestured to the massive crowd of students rushing towards the doors and into the hallways, "You see that? I've seen safer mosh pits to be in than that right now. Everyone's panicking about this instead of acting like heroes in training, so I'm going to sit here until everyone calms down."

I couldn't really place what the look on Momo's face meant. Admiration for my calm in a chaotic situation? Disbelief in my stupidity for not taking this seriously? Curiosity as to _why_ I wasn't taking this seriously?

"But what if it's really a villain or something serious?! We could be in danger!"

Yeah, I didn't need a reminder about dangerous villains today. Not with what was coming.

"Trust me, Momo. I think we're going to be just fine. Besides, aren't you forgetting that we're heroes in training? If any villain comes towards us, we'll beat him."

Maybe I was being a bit too confident, but as I flashed a smile at Momo, I saw her relax a bit and smile a soft smile that sent a weird feeling through me.

She really was a captivating person…

"Maybe you're right, Akio. I didn't take you as the calm type."

"I have my momo-ments."

The pun caused her to grown and facepalm, and I couldn't help but chuckle, "It wasn't _that_ bad was it?"

"I can kind of see why Bakugo lunged at you like he did during training…"

"Oof. So it was that bad. Oh well, I'll get better."

"I have my doubts…"

"Come on, just have some faith alright?"

I repress a smile to myself at a reference that was _at least_ two hundred years old by this point.

I wonder if that company even still existed…

My thoughts were interrupted as I heard murmurs about a 'flying first year' that must have been Tenya doing his routine.

However, that wasn't exactly the case.

As I got up and positioned myself at the door to look towards the exit where I expected Tenya to be, I instead saw Izuku.

What the hell? That wasn't right…

"Everyone! It's okay! It's not a villain! Stop panicking!" Izuku yelled at the top of his lungs - Not quite as formal as Tenya would have been, but he projected pretty well.

That isn't to say Tenya didn't get a word in, as I could see him continuing to spread the message, calming the parts of the crowd that couldn't notice Izuku or didn't believe him, he was acting like a proper crowd controller right now, and that was something to admire.

"...Looks like our classmates are handling it just fun, huh, VR?" I quip, looking at Momo.

She had been staring at the decisive actions of both Tenya and Izuku as they happened, and shook herself out of it when I spoke to her, "Yeah, I guess you're right. Makes me feel kind of bad that we're not doing anything. Aren't we the Class Reps?"

At her words, I cross my arms, "Maybe, but we'll have ample opportunity to prove ourselves in the future. Besides, it doesn't look like we were in much of a position to do anything anyways."

Momo taps her chin, "Well, there might be _something_ we could do to help."

"Oh yeah?"

As I turned to look at her while asking, my face heated up as I saw her turned away where no one was looking, channeling her quirk through her shirt, which she had just opened, "M-Momo?!"

"Just a moment!"

Soon, she turned back around, thankfully after covering herself back up again to spare my teenage boy brain any more difficulties, and she was holding two megaphones.

"Megaphones, huh?"

"Mhm! We'll use them to help spread the new around the rest of the school. This isn't the only lunch period, and I'll bet there's plenty of students still crammed in other hallways. This way, we're doing our part as well."

"That's a lot of distance to cross. How are we going to do it?"

"Well, can't you go channel your quirk through your body to increase your speed? Why not do that?"

"Yeah, but if I channel it across my body it ends up hurting me, I can't control it all the way across me just yet."

"Hmm… Why not just… Channel it into certain parts of your body, like your legs?"

I stared at her for one a moment.

A few moments.

A minute.

Momo stared at me, a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead, "Erm… Akio, are you okay?"

I proceed to facepalm myself.

"Why didn't I think of that from the start?! It's so obvious!"

Momo covered her mouth and giggled at my facepalm, "Did you really not think of that, at all? It didn't cross your mind even once?"

"Nope! I guess I'm just not that smart."

"Well, good thing I'm here, huh? Someone has to pick up the slack."

"Gee, thanks. Well, that solves my problem, what about you?"

"I could make myself something to ride on, but that might take time… I'm not exactly a skateboarder or anything, a scooter maybe, but that'd take too much out of me…"

It was my turn to get a 'good' idea, and it came out of my mouth before I really got a chance to think about it, "Why not ride on my back? We'll be able to get to more people that way, even if we're in the same area. I can be pretty fast when I want to be."

Momo's face flushed red at the idea, "I-I know I could come up with a better idea if I had time, but we're kind of pressed for it right now, so I guess that'll have to work. Are you sure you can support me?"

"Please. You're not fat, besides I'm pretty strong, even when I'm not using my quirk. I mean, just look at this!" I flex my arm, jokingly, which caused her to giggle.

"Yeah, sure! Alright. I guess this'll have to work. Let's go!"

And so we assumed the weirdest possible looking position possible, Momo got onto my back and I began to channel One for All through my legs, blue energy cracking around my legs.

I found I _was_ able to control its flow this time, its percentage was able to be kept down at 5%! That would have been useful against Bakugo…

We went to another entrance to the cafeteria and found it equally packed with panicking students trying to hurry outside the building.

"Can you try jumping on the walls? We could cross more ground that way!" Momo suggests.

Honestly that was a good idea, although it was hard to think about Momo being on my back without her… Momos coming to my mind. They were very hard to ignore given that they were basically either on my back, or really close to my back.

I guess I'd have to go _Plus Ultra_ and do my best to reign in my degenerate mind.

Either way, I leapt up towards the wall, honestly astonished by both my ability to control One for All's percentage now, and that I was able to effectively bound between the two walls without falling into the crowd or losing focus.

Maybe it had to do with the fact that I had someone on my back? Someone who'd probably be pretty upset if I dropped her into a glorified moshpit.

It was probably more that than my own skill with the quirk, but it'd have to do.

"EVERYONE! IT'S OKAY! THE SITUATION HAS BEEN RESOLVED!" Momo yelled into the megaphone, which drew attention to us. People looked absolutely stunned. Although I wasn't sure what they were stunned over - The news or the flying first years leaping around telling them what to do.

Both, probably.

"Hey Momo, your skirt is covered right? Don't want to give anyone a peak down there."

"I wear shorts underneath."

"Smart girl!"

"You expected less?"

"Eh, I guess not."

We continued on after that, crossing a good portion of this week of the school notifying people.

It went on for awhile, but thankfully soon an announcement came on over the school's PA system and alerted the entire school to what was going on, and we were able to stop.

We found a spot with an opening and I landed, sighing as I immediately went to sit against the wall, "Damn. Quirk or not, that really worked out my legs. Maybe you're heavier than I thought, Momo!"

Momo frowned and lightly kicked my side as she stood up, collecting the megaphone I had been given, "I'm not that heavy! Maybe you just need to work out more."

"Eh, maybe. Wanna see if I can bench press you? I'd be a good workout."

She scoffs, "I have a workout room at home. Maybe when you and Himiko come over to study we can see just how _mighty_ you really are, huh?" Crossing her arms under her chest, she smiled at me.

I had no idea Momo could be this smug… Maybe I shouldn't be too surprised though.

"Are you okay to walk? You did exert yourself a lot without stretching first."

"Yeah, just give me a sec to rest my legs then we can head back to class. Although I'm pretty upset we spent all of Lunch doing this, Lunch Rush makes the best rice…"

Momo goes to sit next to me, I guess because she knew it'd take a hot minute for my legs to feel ready again, "He does. Honestly I wonder what his secret is…"

"Being born with a quirk involving cooking probably has something to do with it. I'm just glad he likes what he does. Imagine having a quirk like that and really hating cooking or something."

Momo gains a ponderous look on her face, "...Yeah, that actually reminds me of a book I read once. _Bad Luck Birth_."

"Oh?" I tilt my head as I look at her. Once upon a time I was an avid reader, but that was… Both 200 years ago and in a different universe, apparently. Any of the books I liked either didn't exist or probably qualified as ancient artifacts by now. That, combined with my lack of knowledge of how this world works and my constant busy schedule made it hard to pick it up again.

"The author wrote a biographical story that also doubled as a discussion on how someone can be shoehorned into a role in society if they aren't born with a quirk that fits their personality. It was really eye-opening. Sure, there are people like Lunch Rush who love what they do, but how many people do you think were born with quirks that got them jobs they hated? They're stuck like that for life and don't have a way out. It's really sad, actually…"

Damn… That was pretty…

Depressing, actually.

"… Yeah, I guess that isn't considered enough in society. It's… Very rare that someone would get a second chance at getting a new quirk."

Like me, for example, even though I was just fine with Foresight. One for All put me in a whole new league, and it meant I could do things I only dreamt of in my old life…

Even if deep down I felt like I robbed this from Deku.

Momo nods slowly, "I've heard tales of some people compensating for their quirk with technology… I think I know someone who might go that route in our class, actually."

That raised my interest, I didn't think anyone in our class really _needed_ technology, "Who?"

"Himiko. Her quirk isn't offensive _or_ defensive. She relies on her own agility to get around and is more of a backline fighter, which means she'd really benefit from having gadgets and gear to augment her own abilities."

I blinked a few times, "Wow. You're right… Maybe you should tell her that."

"Mmh… You're closer to her, maybe you could?"

"Oh come on. Don't tell me you're shy."

Momo scratches her chin and looks away bashfully, "Of course not! I'm not shy… But Himiko is… It's hard to get a read on her. And besides, you're the one she has a crush on."

"E-Eh?!"

"What, you seriously don't know? The girl practically follows you around like a lost puppy between classes and she's always standing so close to you. I know guys are dense, but really…"

"I-I don't think it's that!"

Sure, Himiko was cute… But I didn't know if I saw her that way. Besides… Remembering what she was in the show kind of… Put me off a bit. Even if she was living with me and proved good, maybe she still had some kind of craziness in her?

"Well _you_ might not but she does."

"I've barely known her a week! It's a bit too early to be thinking about stuff like that, don't you think?"

"...Maybe."

Just then, the bell rung, interrupting us and causing both of us to jump to our feet, "Oh damn!" I exclaim, "We sat clean into the next class! We have to go!"

We took off running - This time side by side as quirk usage wasn't really necessary for closing the gap to our next class.

I almost managed to forget about the USJ attack.

...Wait, USJ. Shit!

…..

And so I spent the final non-hero classes panicking about what to do.

Come on, I know I'm not the smartest guy but there had to be _something!_

I finally settled on texting All Might and asking him in a subtle way to be sure to be at the USJ today. I knew he'd be surprised since I wasn't supposed to know he was going to be there - But I could just say I used Foresight.

I just hope he read the text in time and hadn't used up his quirk by the time he needed it.

Someone out there had to know some foolproof way to prepare for this attack that I didn't, and I'm sure whoever they are, they're screaming at me and pulling their hair out because I'm not doing something.

But hey, hindsight is 20/20. Don't blame me not thinking on my feet!

Either way, we eventually reached Introduction to Heroism and took our seats, thankfully nothing much had happened since the alarm incident so the day progressed smoothly.

I knew that was about to change, very soon though.

Aizawa soon walked inside, causing scattered conversations to end. He stood at the podium and spoke, "Alright. Today we're going to be doing Rescue training at a special facility built to help train you for all possible emergency scenarios." Taking out a remote, he presses a button, and the wall holding out suits began to dispense them out, "Change and meet me outside, we're going on a bus ride."

There was a lot of excited murmuring as people got up, Himiko in particular rapidly patted my shoulder, "We're going to go do rescue stuff! Real hero work! That's gonna be so much fun!"

I normally mostly just wrote off Himiko's antics as her being naturally playful, but after Momo's words earlier I could help but blush a bit at the thought that she might actually be attracted to me.

It was… Weird. I wasn't attractive or anything.

For all I knew she was only this affectionate because I basically saved her from living in poverty. She was probably just thankful.

Yeah, that was it!

"Agreed." I respond to her as I grab the case holding my outfit, "I think it'll be… Very interesting to see everyone in action."

I had to hold back any ominous foreshadowing, and any tone that could allude to such. Not that Himiko noticed as she grabbed her case, waved at me, then went to go get ready.

Sighing, I made my way to go switch into my outfit, realizing even in this world I wouldn't exactly be able to escape High School gossip and classroom drama.

….

Soon, we were all changed, and herding ourselves towards a bus.

I had made Tenya my deputy Rep, which gave him some clout, and it seemed like he was still using it the best he could.

"Everyone! Board the bus in an orderly fashion! We want to represent our class well on this trip!"

Of course, this was foiled when the inside of the bus was revealed to be open-formatted, so we just sort of sat wherever.

I ended up sitting next to Izuku and, of course, Himiko. Tsuyu sat next to Izuku as well and Momo sat off on one of the other seats next to Kyoka, looking out the window, clearly deep in thought.

I didn't get to contemplate it any as Izuku poked me on the arm, "You still look pretty nervous. Seriously, what's up?"

Ah Izuku. Always concerned for others…

"Nothing really. I think."

"Hmmm, you su-"

"Ugh, come on!" Katsuki groans, "He says he's fine, just leave it!" He was sitting a few seats away, but was clearly listening in.

"Uhm, if you say so Kacchan." Izuku leaned back and tried to think of something else to talk about.

For once I was grateful for Katsuki being a jerk. He got Izuku to stop prodding me, something I'd been unsuccessful in all day.

Not that I didn't appreciate Izuku's prodding, it showed he was concerned. It just got annoying when I couldn't exactly tell him what I was worried about since we were _surrounded_ by people who hadn't the slightest idea of my original quirk, and I'd like to keep it that way as to avoid any questions.

Keeping Foresight hidden from general knowledge is an ace in my sleeve I'd like to keep for as long as possible.

Denki chimed in after a few moments of silence, "Pfft, what do you have to worry about anyways, Akio? Your quirk is like, super strong! You were practically blowing away Bakugo's attacks with just your fingers!"

I could see Bakugo growing annoyed in the background, "I had him beat, if it wasn't for Yaoyorozu showing up, remember that!"

Denki ignored him, something that brought a smile to my face as he continued, "Honestly I think you have one of the strongest quirks out there. It reminds me of All Might!"

My smile promptly disappeared, "Think so? That's pretty cool."

"Yeah…" I heard Todoroki speak up from his seat on the other side of the bus, "It does mirror All Might a lot." He states factually.

Damn it, of course the one time Todoroki speaks up is to prod at my quirk…

While I'm trying to think of something to say, Izuku comes to my rescue, "I-It's probably just a coincidence! Besides, All Might's way stronger!"

"Yeah, true." Denki notes, "I mean, All Might doesn't break his limbs with his quirk."

Again, Todoroki speaks up, "I saw Akio utilizing his quirk without breaking his limbs earlier today. I think he's improved."

I would have been happy at the compliment if Todoroki's tone wasn't so… Stoic and somewhat suspicious.

Like he was questioning my relationship to All Might.

Oh boy.

"I'm just training, you know? Getting stronger comes to all of us!" I respond, waving my hand dismissively, "Come on. If I was really that similar to All Might, wouldn't I have been a recommended student or something?"

"Hmm… Maybe." Denki taps his chin, "Guess you're right! A student walking around with All Might's powers would be fought over by all the major schools, I think, you seem pretty unassuming."

And thank god for that.

Even though, considering I was in my hero garb, I was probably the most 'assuming' I could be right now. Given that I loosely based my outfit off of All Might's outfit from his prime, with some safety features.

Izuku noticed that earlier, but thankfully didn't decide to bring it up. I think he just thought it was cool.

I was relieved that the topic had moved on from that, although as I spoke to Himiko about our expectations when we got there, I could feel another pair of eyes on me.

It wasn't Todoroki this time, as I glanced around, I noticed Momo look away.

What was that about?

I didn't really feel like asking her, especially not with what I expected to happen, so I simply turned back to talking to HImiko.

The rest of the ride was truly uneventful, and we soon found ourselves pulling up to the USJ, a building easily the size of an American Football Stadium, except completely domed. I had a feeling this place had something far more exciting than sports inside, though.

Well, not just a feeling, I _knew_ it did.

Once we got off, everyone started marveling at the size of the building as Aizawa led us towards the entrance, where Thirteen was waiting for us.

Honestly, there was something really cool about seeing someone in an old school Astronaut uniform, it brought back my old memories of watching space and sci-fi shows when I was much younger and thought Space was the coolest thing in the world.

"Hello everyone, I've been waiting for you!" Thirteen greeted us.

The rest of the class gasped and talked about her, especially Uraraka, "Thirteens always been my favorite!" She exclaims to Deku with an excited grin.

Meanwhile, I sat back with Momo and Toga as Thirteen went on to lead us in, my nerves keeping me from sharing my classmates' excitement.

The inside of the building was just as massive, if not more massive than the outside alluded to. The domed ceiling hid away several life-size disaster zones.

Some of which, I didn't recognize from the show…

Oh boy.

"Welcome to my facility!" Thirteen declares, turning around with arms wide as the other students gaped at the various emergency situations.

"I built this place to help train new heroes in various emergency rescue situations! From blizzards-"

Catching my attention, was another domed area marked with a large snowflake on it, towards the back of the facility, strangely next to the region that held the fire rescue scenario.

"Wilderness Rescue!"

There was a large forested area that seemed to be its own biome inside this massive complex.

"Water rescue, and more!"

The rest of the joint was almost too much for me to completely take in, and I could tell the rest of the students felt the same as me due to how they were gaping at this place.

"It's so cool!" Toga exclaimed from next to me, bouncing on her feet, "I can't wait!"

"I'm so glad you're excited!" Thirteen declares, "But there's a few things before we continue. Okay, maybe _more_ than a few things. Possible several things-"

"We get it!" A few classmates call out, so Thirteen will continue, and she does.

"You all have been training extensively even over just these past few days, and you've learned valuable lessons that will form the bedrock of your future knowledge of heroics. Aizawa's first lesson taught you the current limits of your powers, and All Might's combat lesson showed you how your powers can be used against other people. Now, you will be using your powers not for combat, but for rescue. The true essence of being a hero is saving those in need, and your quirks need to be properly utilized, or else they could easily be used to kill, like mine could. Its valuable that you, Class 1-A, learn to use your powers to save, because a hero doesn't only seek out combat, a hero saves the innocent! Is that clear to you all?"

"Yes, thirteen!" We declare in unison, and she points behind herself, "That's all, let's get going."

And then, some of the lights around the USJ began to shut off, and my blood ran cold.

Aizawa and Thirteen turned around as a black and purple void began to take the place of the fountain in the middle of the facility, and I knew they were coming.

I make my way back, drawing some eyes, "Iida." I stop in front of him, "Listen carefully, okay? I need you to leave the joint."

"W-What?" Iida seemed shocked, "Why? What's happening?"

"Look, trust me. We're in danger. You're the fastest one here, right?"

"I am, you know I am!"

"So you need to go, _now_ and get help. Alright?"

"R-Right!"

Iida seemed to take my word for it, as I looked back the cluster of villains was already out, and Aizawa making his charge down the stairs.

"Iida, now!"

Iida turned and went to run, but before he could get to the doors, the black void started to appear, and I knew we were too late.

 _Damn it!_

I should have warned them sooner, but my damn fear of questioning ruined my chance!

Iida skidded to a halt as everyone turned around, Thirteen moved to the front, "Stay back students!"

Kurogiri formed, covering our escape, "Hello, we are the league of villains. I know it's impolite but we have decided to invite ourselves into this haven of justice to say hello. And besides, isn't this a fitting place for All Might, the symbol of peace, to take his last breath?"

Kurogiri in person made me understand why the rest of 1-A was so frightened of him the first time around - An expansive black void talking in a refined voice, menacing over us. I couldn't shake the feeling of dread he gave.

"I believe he was supposed to be here today and yet I see no sign of him. Strange, there must have been a change in plans we could not have foreseen. No matter, I still have a part to play."

I was so caught up with Kurogiri that I missed Bakugo and Kirishima preparing to leap at him.

"Idiot! Did you think we'd just stay still?!"

The ensuing explosion and kick up of dust caused the rest of us to have to cover our faces, and when the dust cleared, Kurogiri remained unaffected.

"My my, you certainly live up to your schools reputation." Kurogiri muses as he changed his position, "But you should be careful children, or else someone might get _hurt._ "

Then, the gaseous villain encircled us all, I wanted to move out but I found myself being forced to cover my face as the gas made it hard to see.

"Aki!" I heard Toga exclaim in a panicked tone as she grabbed onto my side.

"Just hold on!" Was all I could muster, as I felt the world change around me.

….

…

Himiko wasn't with me when I was forced out of the portal Kurogiri had created, I'd have been worried if I wasn't falling from the sky.

The air around me was freezing and snow whipped around me as I tried to reorient myself and look to where I was going to land.

Below me was a seemingly vast forest with pine trees growing tall, and getting ever closer to me as I continued to fall.

' _Come on, come on think…'_

I realized the answer and struggled to right myself as I channeled One for All through my legs.

 _BOOM!_

I was lucky to have properly braced myself as I landed, it created a small crater in the ground.

Not the size of anything All Might would have made in my situation, but it was good enough.

I now had other things to worry about.

First of all, it was freezing. My suit was not designed for this kind of thing!

Secondly, Himiko and the others were scattered around the place just like me.

I had to think, what was I going to do?

"Akio?"

I turned to the source of the voice and was greeted with Momo looking at me, wearing a heavy jacket she must have created.

Oh god… So she was here as well.

This really wasn't going to plan.

"Oh, hey Momo. Nice weather, eh?" I try to joke, although my tone was rather weak due to the weather.

"Fantastic weather." She responds with an air of sarcasm, "Here, let me make you a jacket. You should think about getting your outfit thermal-protection."

"Thermal protection…"

That wasn't something I had thought of for one reason or another, yet in the freezing cold it made perfect sense.

Turning around, Momo channeled her quirk and soon I was equipped with a heavy winter jacket and winter pants over my outfit, same as her.

Walking through the snow trying to find our way to the exit, we had time to ruminate on just what the hell was going on.

Momo had some ideas.

"The villains came here with a concrete goal in mind, and with how their leader was talking, it seems to be to kill All Might."

"Why would they think they could kill All Might here?" I wonder aloud, even though I knew why, "A posse of low-strength villains with some big guys isn't anything he hasn't faced before."

"They must have some kind of secret plan." Momo guesses, "I didn't like the looks of that freaky brain villain…"

Nomu… Oh shit!

Memories came rushing back to me of how Nomu nearly killed Eraserhead and how Shiguraki nearly killed Froppy. If that was still going to happen, Deku and crew would need help!

"We can't stay lost for too long." I urge, "They'll need our help. We're the class reps right? We should be there!"

"I agree with you," Momo seemed a lot more at peace with the situation than me, "But I'm still trying to think of how we'll get out of here. Maybe I can make something to lead us to the exit…"

After that, however, I spotted something off in the snow.

A patch of it was moving towards Momo!

I grabbed her arm and pulled her towards me as whatever it was leapt towards her, causing it to narrowly miss.

And causing Momo to stumble towards me, we lost our balance and I ended up on my back, Momo on top of me.

We had a few moments to blush at each other in shock before she hurried off me and I stood up as we heard snow-crunching footsteps closing in on us.

"Well well. Love-birds in the snow. This would be romantic, if you weren't going to die here." A voice called as the snow started to whip up into a flurry around us. I didn't even have time to feel embarrassed before my eyes met the person who taunted me.

There was a gang of about ten villains, of note was the one who spoke to me, a man decked out in full snow-gear with icy-blue eyes under protective ski-goggles, a giant yeti-like man that stood at least seven feet tall, and a woman that seemed to have been the ambusher, who formed together out of the snow and crossed her arms.

"Only two of them? This should be easy." Snow-villain scoffs, "Let's beat their asses already!"

And so they descended on us.

"Momo! I'll get the big guy if you get the snowy one!"

"Which snowy one?" She asks aloud, although she was already producing a weapon with her quirk, a long staff that seemed to have some kind of heating element on either end of it. "I'll get them! Be careful, Akio."

And it was on.

The villains split off int chunks.

I saw Momo engaging with her heated staff, the snow-shifter having trouble keeping up with her as she melted the snow around them.

Not that I had much time to admire her practiced form, as the Yeti-man was now running towards me with a wild look on his face.

Thinking quickly, I dig my feet in and channel One for All through my upper body, blue energy crackling all around me.

"Come on ugly… Let's go for a ride!"

The large manbeast finally reached me, seeming intent on plowing me over, but as he drew close I put my hands on his torso and lifted him over me.

Not having any other choice, I tossed him at the other four villains who had been waiting to see if their brute would do all the work for them.

Three of them failed to get out of the way in time and were promptly crushed underneath the yeti man, who seemed to be taking a minute to realize what had happened and to get up.

The one who didn't was the snowgear wearing man from earlier, who seemed to glide on the snow with the ease one would expect of a surfer on water.

"Well isn't this something." He speaks, his voice as cold as ice.

"You've got some kind of super strength quirk? Reminds me of All Might. You know, we were sent here to kill him… But I got put back here, so I guess you'll have to do!"

"We'll see about that, villain! I didn't come this far just to die."

"At least we can agree on something." He muses, before skidding forward on the snow.

From what I could tell he seemed to have control over the snow.

As he drew closer I threw a punch, which he blocked with a sudden snow-wall!

"Nice try kid, but nobody can break through my defenses! The winter belongs to me."

I could feel the snow creeping up on my legs, it seemed he was trying to stop me from moving, but I channeled One for All through my legs and leapt into the air, breaking his snow grasp.

"That so?" I wonder, "Well then I guess you'll be considering me your first!"

Wow that sounded wrong.

"Sorry kid, not only do I not swing that way, but you're going to die here today."

Snow tendrils rose off the ground and began to swipe at me, and I had no choice but to meet their attacks with my own charged punches.

But wait, I felt something grab my leg!

Shit…

He throws me down onto the ground.

All I could do to blunt the impact was charge One for All through my body so that it would be blunted somewhat.

As I landed on the ground, snow encased me in some kind of igloo prison.

"Gotcha! I'll come back for you. First I need to deal with your little friend!"

Wait, no no!

Momo was smart, she could take on a few baddies… But this guy was real trouble!

I tried punching through the igloo with One for All at 5%, but it wasn't even cracking.

There was no choice then…

I guess it was time to see if my costume helped to lessen the effects of One for All on my body after all.

I aimed upward and punched with the full force of One for All.

The effects were immediate.

The igloo's roof shattered and got caught in an updraft.

My arm was in immense amounts of pain, but it seemed my suit was able to keep it from completely breaking my arm!

I guess that just meant I could use One for All's full power twice if I needed to in each arm...

Better than Midoriya in the original, I guess, but only barely.

Midoriya at this point with my training would probably be further along, but there was no time to contemplate that.

I channeled my normal amount of power into my legs and leapt into the air, catching the updraft to give me more height to my jump.

"There's one thing you should know about UA students, villains!" I declare as loudly as I can.

"We always find a way! We always go beyond!"

I use a bit of force in One for All in my leg to kick me towards the snow villain as he was proceeding towards Momo.

As he turns towards me and raises a snow wall, I realized I needed to use One for All again, at full strength!

I channeled it into my other arm, and drove it at full power into the wall.

It cracked… And shattered!

My fist continued to the villain's face, and he barely had time to register shock on his features before it connected and drove him into the ground.

I landed on my feet and seethed at the pain going through my arms.

Can't do something like that again without consequences.

As I looked up, I could see the other villains looking at me in shock.

Momo took this opportunity and created something…

A heating fan?

"How about we heat things up a bit?"

She activates the fan and the effects are almost immediate.

The villainess made of snow panics, but melts too quickly to react.

The snow falls off her form and reveals an ordinary woman underneath, who promptly passes out.

The other minor villains quickly surrendered when they saw their leaders were out.

With a bit of effort, we piled them all together and Momo created a perpetually heated cage and stuffed them all inside, after we made sure Mr. Yeti was restrained even further than before.

"Try and get out of that!" She says with a smirk, "Good work back there Akio."

"Yeah, well, you're not so bad yourself. I guess we aren't too bad as a duo, huh?"

"All the more reason to show others why we are the class reps!"

"Yeah…" I grunt, rubbing one of my arms, "Can't pull a stunt like that again without breaking my arms though. We'd better hope we don't encounter anyone that strong again."

Momo nods, "And I can't just keep making things… I need to eat first."

"Well if we make it out of this in one piece, I'll buy us some dango, how about that?"

I dunno where this was coming from, I was normally not so upfront…

Momo's face dusted red, but she nodded, "Alright, consider that a deal."

Then, we turned and started on our way.

Momo was guiding the two of us, and I knew she'd find our way out.

I was still worried about Toga, however.

I hope she's okay…


End file.
